The Winchester brothers arrived in Holden, Missouri, by nightfall and checked into a cheap motel. The guy on the front desk grimaced at them when Sam had asked for one twin room, until Dean mentioned they were brothers. Even then, he wasn‘t one hundred percent sure the guy believed him. It seemed to be a common occurrence having to explain that no, they weren’t a couple!

Sam flipped open his laptop and searched for all the information he could about the death of Jacob Taylor, but he didn’t find much more than was printed in the newspaper. According to his findings, Jacob was a grade A student from a good home, he’d never been in trouble and rarely ventured far from home (where he was staying during summer break from college). Something was definitely suspicious about his death though. An apparently fit and healthy nineteen year old dying like that in his bedroom? It wasn’t normal, which is just what the brothers specialised in.

It was a little late to do any digging around for information from the family, so they decided the best thing to do would be to take a wander around town, have something to eat and maybe question the locals to see what they could find out about Jacob.

As Jacob was only nineteen, they figured it was pointless visiting the local bars, so instead found a lively looking diner and sat down in one of the booths.

“Food looks good here” Dean commented as he looked around at people devouring their meals, laughing, talking and enjoying themselves. He picked up a laminated menu and perused it quickly, deciding on cheese burger and fries with a side of onion rings.

~*~

Rob Edwards was glad he’d stayed in rather than go to the diner with the rest of the crowd. The new game he’d managed to get his hands on was amazing. With graphics as realistic as they were, it was like looking in the mirror at his character…as if the game somehow knew what he looked like. It was like being the hero in some big Hollywood blockbuster without leaving the comfort of his bedroom.

“Take that you fucking zombie piece of shit” he muttered as he blew the shuffling, rotting corpse’s brains all over the place with his weapon of choice - a sawn off shotgun. The zombie stumbled to the ground, now just a headless corpse with congealed blood slowly oozing from the gaping neck wound and fragments of rotting flesh, bone and brain splattered around him.

Rob shouldn’t even have the game, and if anyone found out he’d stolen it the day of Jacob’s funeral, he’d be in big trouble. He’d only meant to use the bathroom, but once upstairs he’d taken a detour into Jacob’s room and spotted the game his deceased friend had raved about in their MSN conversations. The game he’d said was the most awesome game ever, but was only a demo on special loan and therefore not for anyone else to use. But Rob figured that Jacob would’ve wanted him to have it, after all, they had been best friends all through school and had even gone to the same college. Rob still couldn’t believe his friend was dead. Teenagers weren’t supposed to die, not like that.

He shook off thoughts of his friend and focussed back on the game, wondering what he’d have to fight off next.

“What the hell” he mumbled as he came across something he wasn’t quite sure about. In this game, you didn’t know who to trust. What appeared to be an ally could quite easily be the enemy, you just had to make the right decision.

At that moment, his mom popped her head around the bedroom door to say goodnight and to make sure he switched everything off before going to sleep. Did she think he was twelve or something? He was nineteen for god’s sake! He knew how to switch a TV off.

“Night” he called absently and then cursed under his breath. He’d let his attention slip for a moment and found himself in the clutches of a vampire. They sure weren’t like the ones in those lame ass Twilight films. These vampires were more the Thirty Days of Night kind, with razor sharp teeth and no remorse.

“Think you’re gonna take me down huh?” he said to the screen and then reached into his pocket and took out a wooden stake, plunging it into the vampires chest. The vampire staggered backwards and then burst into flames. He burned brightly for only a few seconds before being reduced to a pile of ash.

“That’ll teach you for messing with the master” Rob laughed.

He played for a few more hours, until his eyes started to become heavy and his concentration was slipping.

“May as well just let it kill me” he shrugged, figuring he’d start afresh the following day.

If only he had another day.

Pulling the covers over himself, he was soon in a deep sleep, only to be awoken some time later by a scratching noise. He pulled the covers tighter and closed his eyes again.

“Must be imagining things” he murmured, already half asleep again.

There was no imagining what came next.

The covers were savagely pulled back and something grabbed him. It lifted him from the bed and dragged him like a rag doll across the floor.

“Please…whatever you want…just take it” Rob begged, thinking his attacker wanted to rob the place.

“Don’t worry…I will” answered the most evil sounding voice Rob could imagine, and he could imagine a lot of things!

“Wait a minute…this must be a dream…you can’t be real” Rob decided as his eyes became accustomed to the dark, only the light of the moon shining through his partially open curtains. His attacker wasn’t even human, he was the freaky looking creature from the game…the one who’d killed him.

“I’ll show you how real I am” he said in his grating voice and then placed his mouth against Rob’s and sucked the life right out of him, leaving him a shrivelled corpse in front of the window.

~*~

Later that night after performing to a sell out crowd in The Midland Theatre, Kansas City, the Backstreet Boys congratulated each other for putting on another incredible show.

“Man, that was awesome tonight” Nick said as the adrenaline still pumped through his body. They couldn’t say the same for every show, sometimes the atmosphere wasn’t as good and that made it harder work. But when the crowd reacted the way this crowd had, it gave them a warm feeling inside.

“Let’s go to a club instead of going back to the busses just yet. We don’t have to leave until morning, let’s have a bit of fun” AJ suggested

“But…” Nick began to protest. What he really wanted to do was carry on where he’d left off with his game.

“No buts dude, you can play that game tomorrow” AJ said “come on, live a little!”

z88;