Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 22:32:33 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time)
From: David Grimstone <grimstone@btinternet.com>
Subject: After Dark 5

After Dark 5 by DCG

###############
DISCLAIMER
###############

The usual disclaimer applies as per usual. I don't mean to imply anything
about NSync or anything they do or think. But *my* character Chris, who is
based around a real person is, yes you've guessed it, completely and
utterly gay and THAT I DO want to imply!!

Also, I am mentioning music that people have had the inspiration to write
and compose and perform and I want to impart that the piece used here is
the artists alone...(and Sony Music (c)  as-well!!)

Also, kids bugger off cause your too young, and the same goes for those who
don't like this stuff...All that being said...

Authors Notes: Chapter 4 out of the way, chapter 5 coming your way!! But
the questions just keep on coming... Will JC find Justin? Why did Joey go
ape shit on Brits Ass? Is Joey Ok? Where the hell is Chris B? lol Well, I
hope you enjoy how it unfolds...

Suggested Reads: Again I suggest 'My Surprise Romance'...It rocks!! lol
Just go give it a read...It's well put together, has great
characterisation, and good direction...The whole package (plus it's an
NSync story so that works for me!!) hehe

Important Note: Nobodies reading this I'm sure, but ha-ho... I have come to
realization that music is a pivotal part of my writing. It influences me
immensely and guides my storylines without effort. I listen to a fast paced
piece of rock music and the pace of the story increases, and the sentences
shorten, and the action becomes slicker. I listen to a piece of background
music, or classical music, or soundtrack music for that matter, and it goes
the opposite way...and everything slows down and I put more thought into
the scene in general, and the thoughts of the characters take a more
prominent role...With this in mind, I have decided to attach a piece of
music to each chapter, as sort of a theme for it. It will be the piece of
music that influenced me the most in my writing, and was more than likely
the piece of music I was listening when i wrote it...Some pieces may
surprise you, or they may not!! Oh, and if someone else has already done
this in their work and feels I have stolen their idea without asking, then
please let me know and I'll stop...

Enough of me and on with the show...

*****************************************************************************

Last Time in After Dark...

"Another weather warning for everyone today. It looks like we'll all need
to lock those doors tight and wrap up warm as a severe weather front heads
our ways...And it could be in for the night!"

Up the stairs, in his room, Joey had laid down on his bed, and looked up at
the ceiling blankly. He hadn't meant to be so outspoken towards Britney,
but it was becoming increasingly harder to hold back where she was
concerned. `One of these days!' thought Joey. But as soon as that thought
ran through his head, something else did as-well. A sharp blinding pain hit
him in the back of the head, and he immediately clasped his hands tightly
around the base of his skull as he reared up off the mattress. The pain was
worse than any pain he had experienced in his life. He sat up on the edge
of the bed and let go of his head. He placed his hands on the duvet
underneath and clasped his hands shut. He gritted his teeth, and closed his
eyes...

And now the continuation...

*****************************************************************************

After Dark by DCG

Chapter 5 - Slippery Situation

Music: Just a Phase - Incubus

No time had passed for Chris as he lay on the snow capped floor, his upper
body leant against an old and haggard tree stump. His eyes closed. His
breath even but shallow.

As the tree branches pierced the windscreen, Chris opened his door, and
leapt for safety. He hit the ground awkwardly, and took a moment to regain
enough strength to lift himself from horizontal, and onto his feet. As he
stood upright, he saw the car come to a grinding halt as it first, skipped
past one tree, catching it's trailing edge, before ploughing straight into
another, head-on, stopping instantly.

He looked away, and started to walk into the trees, away from what would
surely be a ball of flames moments later. But as he walked, and
occasionally looked back, he saw or heard nothing. Eventually, as the
outline of the car began to blur, he stopped. From the moment he had pulled
himself up out of the snow, he had felt dizzy. An overwhelming urge to
close his eyes was preying on his thoughts, but up until now he had
resisted it.

He looked down at his watch, and saw the shattered screen and a time of 3am
blinking back at him, frozen. Then it hit him, and his eyes looked into the
ceiling of his skull as his eyelids closed and his body fell to the floor
lack a sack of potatoes, hit head hitting the edge of a tree stump
beneath. And there he lay, until the morning, until now...

Slowly, the cold and frank truth of the morning air registered with Chris
as he opened his eyes slowly and tentatively. He was perched in exactly the
same position as the night before.

A dull thud of pain echoed in the back of his head as it rested on the now
bloody tree stump. As his eyes opened wide he realised his predicament. He
was here, in the freezing cold, completely alone. As he felt his eyes close
shut, the final thought that ran through his mind was that this, situation,
would be the last thing to happen to him. He was for a second, thankful
that it wasn't.

He raised himself to his feet and began to tentatively walk through the
snow, thinking of nothing but returning to his car, and raising help. He
passed tree after tree in his journey, and suddenly the smell of smoke
drifted around him. He inhaled deeply, and coughed slightly.

Then in the distance, his car appeared through the cracks between the
branches, but it wasn't how he had left it. The blue shiny surface had been
replaced by a charred and cracked hulk. Every surface of the car had been
overcome by flames, leaving nothing but a useless $3 piece of scrap
metal. Chris hurried his pace, until he stood alongside the car. He stood
motionless for several minutes, just looking. When he leapt from the car,
this was what he had expected, but it didn't happen, or so that's what he
thought. Here was his `almost' new car that had swallowed all of his recent
savings and acted as his pride and joy. Now all that stood there was
something he wouldn't want to be in the same screen shot as. Something he
would deny ownership of in order to avoid the embarrassment.

"Who would have thought I'd be stood here...like this." Said Chris "Hey
look, I'm even talking to myself now!" He chastised as he thought of how
ridiculous the situation was.

Suddenly, out of the corner or his eye, he caught something glistening with
energy. He caught sight of sparks, flickering across the lifeless corpse. A
sign that all the destruction that had taken place the night before may not
be over. In the same sideways glance, he also saw something else, something
that signalled the need for him to run like never before. Below the car
laid a pool of fresh petrol, shimmering in the daylight.

Chris turned in one fluid motion, and ran, ran like never before, even
though his body ached... He glanced back once as the sparks danced ever
closer to the pool of fuel. He darted past one tree, shimmied right, and
past another. The car began to blend with the background of branches and
snow as Chris put distance between them. Then suddenly, out of the silence
came the inevitable. A solitary spark danced off the edge of the hood and
fell into the petrol. The fireball that resulted knocked Chris clean off
his feet. His arm caught the edge of an approaching tree, and he gasped in
pain as he ended up in the snow on the floor...

In the chalet, Lance and Chris were greeted by pictures pivoting on their
hangings on the wall, ornaments wobbling hysterically, and their own bodies
struggling to stand straight. In the bedroom, Joey looked up from his
hunched position on the edge of the bed and for a second didn't think of
his pain ridden head, and wondered what could have caused such
tremors. Britney didn't flinch an inch. She was still angry. Her anger
ridden mind had stopped her from registering the sudden shaking. She just
sat there, on a stool at the edge of the breakfast bar, looking out towards
the garden, and the snow capped hills beyond. The house was silent.

It took a few minutes for Chris to stand straight, his arm added to the
other parts of his body aching. He looked back but couldn't see anything,
so turned around and continued walking in the opposite direction. He had no
idea where it would lead, or how long it would take him to get there, but
he would walk that way anyway.

JC's pursuit of Justin still hadn't come into fruition. He followed every
foot step. He had turned every corner. He had shouted his name in every
decibel possible. He had pleaded to him in every possible manner, but still
Justin hadn't responded. For the last week, they had enjoyed the delights
the skiing in this place had to offer. All except JC. He had cried off
ill. One day he had a cold. The next he felt tired. The point is, is that
he was probably the only person out here who had absolutely no idea where
he was going. Justin had probably followed a designated path somewhere, and
JC had absolutely no idea where that led. Right now JC was lost.

Across the wooded wilderness, Chris B continued to follow a random path
through the woods. He had occasionally heard the odd voice echo through the
woods, but dismissed it as a freak occurrence, because `no-one else could
be out here'. Now he was well and truly lost, and had no idea of where to
go. The snow started to fall again, slowly. He again felt the back of his
head, and his hand reappeared with a smattering of drying blood on his
fingertips. It worried him to no end. It worried him that if anything
should happen to him, that he probably wouldn't be found. It was a morbid
thought to have, but it was one of those things that always ran through
Chris' mind in a crisis. He was always the defeatist, and never the
optimist. He always thought that it was better to be prepared, than to be
disappointed when the inevitable happened. But right now, it wasn't giving
him any comfort, it increased his fear, and worry. But he tried to brush it
aside and continued walking, aimlessly, as he thought, to his
destination...

A short way through the snowy forest, Justin continued his trek away from
the chalet. His head down, his mind on something, anything, other than the
route he was taking. The thoughts that plagued his mind revolved around
Britney and the one time she had managed to get through his defences and
hit home at the very heart of his being. Just ten or so minutes ago this
had happened, and it took Justin by surprise. He hadn't expected a simple
discussion to deteriorate into a petty argument, and then a heated
one. Justin had thought that ignorance would be bliss as they say, but it
wasn't. She had hit some hidden home truths with her comments. They had
stung so much that they brought instant, unstoppable tears to him. He was
never one to `not' cry, especially in front of JC, but he never thought he
could be brought to that, level, so easily. He never fully realised that
this `front' could be broken so easily. And here he was, tears still
streaking his cheeks, ten minutes after the incident, and in the middle of
nowhere. Suddenly, the realisation that he was indeed, in the middle of
nowhere, registered, and he looked up.

In front of him was something he hadn't come across in the entire seven day
trip so far, and a sight he wouldn't easily forget. Before his very eyes
was a sight that stretched across umpteen miles. He stood at one of the
highest points in the area, and the clearing he had just stepped into
revealed a stunning vista of the surrounding mountain ranges, and snow
capped hills that made up this skiing paradise, this retreat. He stopped
and took it all in for a second. He then looked skywards into the snow, and
paused before walking forwards and perching himself on an exposed rock
dangerously close to the cliff edge. He would wait.

JC had now almost given up the chase for Justin. He imagined Justin having
already returned to the chalet. He stopped, and looked around. Every way he
looked the view was the same, snow covered trees everywhere. He turned back
on himself and started walking. He started back down the trail that he
thought might bring him back to somewhere familiar. He hated to not
continue onwards after Justin, but for all he knew, Justin was fine, and
worrying about him. Justin knew these hills having spent seven whole days
exploring them, JC did not, and for all he knew, if he had carried on, he
would have ended up more lost than Justin could ever be. He trudged slowly
onwards.

Lance and Chris, the ever exuberant twosome, were, shall we say, not as
exuberant as usual. With Britney in the kitchen and in a foul mood, and
Joey upstairs in an equally foul mood, they were stuck between a rock and a
hard place as far as options went. So they sat down on the sofa, and sat,
silently.

"What do you think got up Joey's nose?" Asked Chris. "It's not like him to
go off on one like that!"

"Don't ask me, I don't know." Answered Lance. Their enthusiasm had been
drained to nothingness as Lance looked down at his watch, and mentally
noted that it had been over an hour since JC had left to go after
Justin. That was a long time. He stood up and walked over to the window,
and peered out, in the hope both their missing friends would trudge out of
the wilderness and back into civilisation.

"It doesn't matter how many times you look at that watch, or out of that
window, it's not gonna help any." Observed Chris.

"It's just not like Justin to be like that. He was crying before he got to
the gate..." Said Lance.

"Yeah, but the bitch said some harsh shit, don't forget that!" Finalised
Chris. "But more importantly, we've got a dead fucking body in the
bathroom..."

Lance just started laughing, slightly at first, before letting rip into a
belly laugh.

"What?" Asked Chris "What?" He asked again. Lance laughing all of a sudden
wasn't the most expected thing to happen.

The time dwelled onwards and so did Chris B. The monotony of walking
through this woodland was starting to grate on him. There seemed no end to
the tree-lined vista. Wherever he looked, whichever way he turned was the
same. He started to regret turning away from his wrecked car. At-least that
was on the road to civilisation, however far away that may have
been. Here. Well, here was even further lost than he was back at the car,
or laid against the tree. The wound on the back of his head still bled
fresh blood, slowly but surely. His elbow ached to the point where Chris
thought it might be broken. He would have laughed at his situation and the
absurdity of it if he didn't cringe up in pain if he tried. By now the snow
had started to blanket down. It started to gather on Chris' clothes and
send shivers down his spine as he rued not having a coat with him.

Back in the chalet, Britney's attention was drawn to the small transistor
radio that was perched on the edge of the work surface. She had listened to
every single word that had managed to get through the interference. She
darted out of the kitchen and back into the lounge as the news sunk in.

"Guys..." She said as she appeared in the lounge as Lance stood motionless
at the window, Chris sat silently on the couch, and Joey had now come
downstairs and stood at a slightly ajar door.

"What is it?" Asked Chris as he looked up

"I heard on the radio that there's some bad weather coming our way...really
bad weather." She said with fear for her friends and boyfriend in her voice
and mind.

"We know!" Said Lance knowingly as he continued to look out into the
forest, snow covering every inch of vision as it fell heavily to the
floor. Dark clouds edged the horizon as the loomed ominously...

After trying for the fifth time to get a signal, Chris had given up hope of
reaching help before he ultimately froze to death. The snow had started off
as a light shower. Something to see on a Christmas card, but now it had
turned into a storm. Chris could hardly see anything as he shot from tree
to tree trying to find some sort of shelter from the blinding sheets of
snow that hit his face. He paused for a minute as he thought he could see
some form of an exit from the forest, `Could this be?' he thought as he
increased his pace on route to what he thought was a way out to possible
civilisation. He reached the opening moments later, and stepped out into
the open.

"Ooooh Shit!" Shouted Chris as his footing slipped from underneath him as
his body began sliding...

He quickly grabbed onto the nearest thing he could find, a small bush, and
looked at his fate... His eyes were greeted with a drop of certain death
proportions.

"Fuck!" He sighed...Then, suddenly, a slight movement, he slipped an
inch... Another inch. Another. In his panic he looked back and tried to
grab whatever he could to stop...But as he scratched the surface for a hold
his body slipped more. The bush began to buckle under his slight weight,
and he heard a crack as the small branches which held him began to snap and
release from the ground... "Fuck!!" Screamed Chris as he realised this may
be the end... His hand kept clambering across the ground for something, and
he kept slipping. He felt his legs hit the edge as they hung in mid air,
and small rocks and debris scattered into the wind... "HELP!" Chris
screamed as he was seconds away from death. Suddenly a large branch snapped
under the pressure, and so was Chris' grip. The bush he held onto came away
from the rocks that bound it and Chris felt his body slip down the smooth
surface to the edge. This was it, he was seconds from death as his torso
hit the edge, and all that remained was for his eyes to see his fate...

*****************************************************************************

That's all folks!! Hehe...I know I shouldn't end it on cliffhangers all the
time, but this one was a cliffhanger in more than one sense!! lol Hope you
all enjoyed the opening arc of the thriller that is After Dark. The next 5
chapter arc will be coming your way very soon, so sit tight and enjoy!!
Please get back to me and inflate my deflated ego, and tell me this story
is worth continuing with!! (grimstone@btinternet.com) I'm on MSN Messenger
too I think!! lol just check ujemeflip@hotmail.com and it should bring me
up, and I'm always willing to chat!!

Love and Hugs to everyone, and now I'm off on my holidayz!! Good ol' US of
A here I come!! hehe

DCG