By All Means, Fear [AJR]

Chapter 11

Jack looks at me like i'm insane. "No!" he cries. "I'm fine up here! I have Netflix and i can watch The Office all i want." I roll my eyes, and Dan goes into Jack's bedroom. He comes back with Jack's phone in his hand. "You mean this?" he asks.

Jack pats his hands on his pockets and drops a half-dollar coin on my head. "Fuck," he says. "Dan, hand it over." Dan shakes his head. "Not until you jump down here."

There's a knock at the door, and a woman allows herself in. "Laura?" Shawn stutters. "What are you doing here? How did you know where we were?"

Laura doesn't say anything. She snaps her fingers, and just like that, i'm carring Jack. I immediately set him on the ground, making him slip and fall.

"I'm sorry," Laura says. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. Laurance and i both thought nothing would come of it. We were both wrong. And so were all of you." We all open our mouths to talk, but she snaps her fingers again, and it all goes black.

♤♡◇♧/|\♧◇♡♤

I sit up on my bed, looking around and rubbing my eyes. I could hardly remember what had happened the day before. I knew some details, like how Jack was on the ceiling and he, along with Dan and Shawn, had blacked out.

I went into the kitchen, where Ryan was making tea, and Jack sat at one of the barstools in front of the island.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Jack greeted me. "What time is it?" i mustered. "Four A.M.," Ryan tells me. "Neither of us could sleep." I rub my eyes again and sit next to Jack. "That's why i woke up."

"I hated being on the ceiling," Jack said with a shudder. "Just imagine all of the pigeons that'd fly into me." Ryan laughed and pat his shoulder. "You'd have been fine," we said. "Man, i hope so."

"So, what do you guys wanna do?" i ask. "Y'know, since none of us are gonna go back to sleep." Jack shrugged, and there was a knock at the door.

I went over to open it, and everyone was standing there. "This was the time Tom decided on, so blame him," Steve said, walking in.

Tom rolled his eyes, and they all came in. Jack glanced at Steve, then looked back at Ryan. Ryan glanced at me. I knew what i had to do.

"Jack, Steve, come with me, will ya?" They both followed hesitantly, and i led them to Jack's room. Before they could say anything, i locked the door.

One of them yanked on the doorknob and tried to open it. But Jack's door could only be unlocked from the outside.

"Are they gonna be okay?" Dan asked. I shrugged. "Probably."