“Dude, that thing so killed your ass!” Nick laughed as AJ’s on screen character lay slumped in a bloody heap next to Nick’s character, an axe lodged deep in his shoulder, almost severing his head.

“Pretty fucking realistic looking aint it? “ AJ observed his mirror image on the screen, noticing how even the tattoos looked quite accurate. He wondered, and not for the first time, how a game could be so real. “I can’t believe that out of all the creatures we’ve fought on this game, that little bastard was the one that got me!”

“You’ve gotta expect the unexpected in this game” Nick said, not taking his eyes off the screen as he decimated the monster which had taken down AJ.

“Nice one!” AJ congratulated him as Nick swung his sword and butchered another.

“Watch the master at work and learn a thing or two” Nick smirked. Although he wasn’t happy that his friend had been killed off in the game, he was relieved that it hadn’t been him. AJ would never have let him forget it.

“Actually, I’m gonna go call Monkee” AJ replied and grabbed his phone, stood up and walked to the back of the bus where his bed was. Hopefully she’d be somewhere where she’d be able to participate in a bit of dirty talk. He missed her so much and if he couldn’t have the real thing, he’d have to settle for a little bit of phone sex instead.

He didn’t get as far as dialling her number.

~*~

“Y’know, we might even catch up with them before they get to Salt Lake City” Dean observed as he looked at the speedometer. They were already more than halfway there, just on the outskirts of Ashley National Forest.

“We might. But how do you think we’ll get them to stop?” Sam questioned. It was hardly likely that a tour bus carrying a world famous boy band would stop for a couple of guys in a car. At best they’d be thought of as obsessive fans, at worst they may think of them as would-be kidnappers!

“We’ve got that police light in the back of the car” Dean replied “been dying for a chance to use it since I got it”. He pulled over and got the light out of the back, secured it on the roof of the car (it was magnetic, but just how magnetic, Dean didn‘t know as he‘d not tried it since he‘d obtained it) and plugged it in to the cigarette lighter on the dashboard. “Is it working?”

Without waiting for a reply, Dean got out of the car and looked for himself. Sure enough, it was working. “That ought to do the trick“, he thought to himself with a smug smile. He grabbed their police identification out of the back too and then got back in the car, unplugging the light for now. He’d plug it back in when and if they came across the tour bus.

It just so happened that they didn’t have to wait too long.

~*~

“What the fuck!” AJ shrieked when he heard a noise inside the small room, tearing his attention away from his thoughts of a naked Monkee. He looked up, and did a double take at the sight before him. Standing right there, in his tour bus bedroom, was one of those fucking ugly creatures from the game. “It can’t be. This kind of shit isn‘t real, I must be imagining things…I must‘ve been playing that game for so long that it‘s messing with my mind” he thought to himself for a brief moment, until the creature moved very slowly towards him, axe held high. It was at that moment he realised that this was no game; it was as real as real could be.

“Oh fuck…fuck. Help!” he screamed, hoping Nick would hear. He scooted back as far as he could, not that that would do anything, but still, it was instinctive. He alternated between calling for help and swearing as the Troglodyte twirled his axe.

The monster let out a ferocious sound and lunged for him. AJ dived to the other side of the bed as the axe came down, ripping through the bedding and mattress with ease.

“Fuck” AJ cried and grabbed the lamp from the bedside table. He threw it at the Troglodyte, the lamp’s ceramic base smashing against its big ugly head, yet having little effect.

“Arghhhhhhhhhhh” the creature roared and pulled his axe free as AJ backed up against the wall, completely defenceless except for his laptop which he grabbed and held against his chest as a kind of shield.

“What the fuck is all this noise back here?” Nick asked, opening the door expecting to catch AJ indulging in some weird kinky phone sex but instead coming face to face with the stuff of nightmares. “Fuck” he murmured, dropping his Xbox controller to the floor in complete and utter shock.

“Help me Nick…please” AJ begged as he cowered in the corner, with only a laptop for protection.

Although Nick was in shock at what he was seeing, he knew he had to do something fast. The laptop AJ was holding wasn’t going to stop an axe. “Hey you ugly mother fucker” he called, hoping to get its attention “have some of this”. Nick grabbed for the nearest item, which happened to be an Axe deodorant, and squirted it in the creature’s face. For a moment the Troglodyte was blinded and therefore weak.

“Quick AJ, get out of there” Nick screamed to his friend, hoping that he’d get out of the room before the monster recovered his sight.

AJ scrambled out of the room as fast as he could, trembling and shaking with fear. “Thanks bro” he hugged his friend gratefully before the pair of them realised they had to get off this bus without delay.

Luckily there was an emergency stop button in the main area of the bus, so Nick ran and pressed that, figuring they could somehow get off the bus and maybe out run it.

“How the fuck did that thing appear?” Nick asked, still hardly able to comprehend what he’d seen. The bus came to a stop and the two Backstreet Boys ran for the door.

“Fuck knows” AJ replied “one minute I was lying on the bed about to make a phone call, the next, that thing appeared in the room, wielding an axe”

“What’s going on?” their driver shouted from behind the wheel as Nick and AJ raced out into the open, pressing the button outside to close the passenger exit door.

But before they had a chance to reply and warn him to get the hell out of there, the Troglodyte massacred him, his blood and guts splattering all over the tinted windscreen of the bus.

“Urgh” the two men both exclaimed, holding their hands over their mouths. In reality gore and guts weren’t easy to stomach.

They didn’t hang around to see what the monster did to the butchered body of the driver, they ran as fast as their legs would carry them, staying on the road where they’d be able to flag down a passing car. They’d both seen far too many horror films to know that the characters that veered off the beaten track ended up dead.

~*~

“That looks like a bus” Sam exclaimed, looking into the distance and seeing a large black vehicle.

Dean plugged the flashing light in and pressed down harder on the pedal. In no time at all, they’d reached the bus, which had pulled over into the side of the road.

“Shit, I hope we’re not too late” Dean muttered as they pair of them climbed out of the car cautiously. They armed themselves with numerous weapons and approached the stationary bus.

“Well, we’re too late for someone” Sam remarked as he caught sight of the driver, or what was left of the driver.

The door was open and so they carefully stepped inside, on the look out for anything out of the ordinary. After searching the bus from top to bottom, they came to the conclusion that something had been there. There were EMF traces all over the bus, but no sign of either Backstreet Boy.

“Do you think they got away?” Sam asked, knowing that they couldn’t have just vanished into thin air (or hoping that wasn’t the case).

“Well if they did, I don’t think they would get far. Have you seen any other cars on this stretch of road in the last hour?” he said, knowing full well that they hadn’t seen any other vehicles in a while.

“No” Sam shook his head.

“Exactly” Dean replied.

With no sign of the Backstreet Boys or the creature, the Winchester brothers knew that time was running out, or had already run out. Sam retrieved the game from the Xbox and shoved it in his pocket. There was no time for casting reversal spells which may or may not work, their top priority was finding Nick Carter and AJ McLean.

Dean started the engine and hit the gas, wheel spinning back onto the road. Sam was on look out for anyone on foot.

After a few miles with no sign of either Backstreet Boy, Dean stopped the car and turned to his brother “well, we know they’ve not been picked up, so that means they’ve either gone that way” Dean pointed to the left “or that way” he pointed to the right.

“Great” Sam replied.