Since ancient times, angels have been venerated with great respect. We are pure spirits, sinless servants of God. We are comprised of nine choirs; Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Virtues, Principalities, Archangels and Angels. Particularly powerful are the seven great Archangels. I am one of these seven great Archangels, and you will come to learn that all of our names bare different meanings closely linked to our Father.

When Luciel (his name translated to mean ‘bearer of light’) rebelled against God and became Lucifer (that name translated to mean ‘Prince of Darkness’) one entire choir of angels followed him and was lost. Many angels from other choirs also followed him in his rebellion. There is a scripture written of the battle in Apocalypse 12: 7-9 “And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels: And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Seven angels from the second lowest choir were so outraged by the terrible offense to the dignity of the Most High they positioned themselves between the Throne of God and the infernal offenders, prepared to defend the honor and dignity of God, in spite of their inferiority to Lucifer and his legions. God was so moved by our heroic love that he elevated us, enriching us with many new gifts and graces.

Most of you have all come to know of our names, and what we are patrons of.

St. Barachiel’s name is translated to mean “blessings of God”. He is known as the angel of blessings, and he intercedes in prayer before God for people in need, asking God to give them blessings in all areas of their lives; from their relationships with family and friends to their work. He is the patron saint of marriage (sacrament of matrimony) and family life.

St. Sealtiel’s name is translated to mean “the prayer of God”. He is known as the angel of prayer. He helps people connect to God through prayer, giving them the focus they need to block out distractions and concentrate on praying. He motivates people to express their deepest thoughts and feelings to God in prayer, and to listen carefully for God’s responses. He is the patron saint of prayers (sacrament of Holy Orders).

St. Jehudiel’s name is translated to mean “praise of God”. He is known as the angel of work. He gives encouragement, wisdom, and strength to people who work for God’s glory; especially those in positions of power and leadership who want to honor God while carrying out his or her job responsibilities. He helps people accomplish God’s purposes for all of the work they do. He is the patron saint of all who work (sacrament of extreme unction, anointing of the sick and dying).

St. Uriel’s name is translated to mean “God is my light”. He is known as the angel of wisdom. He shines the light of God’s truth into the darkness of confusion. You ask for his help when you: seek God’s will before making decisions, come up with fresh creative ideas, learn new information, solve problems, resolve conflicts, let go of destructive emotions such as anxiety and anger that can prevent them from discerning wisdom, and recognize dangers situations so they can try to avoid them. He is the patron saint of the arts and sciences (sacrament of Confirmation).

St. Raphael’s name is translated to mean “God heals”. He is known as the angel of healing. He’s full of compassion on people who are struggling physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. He works to bring people closer to God so they can experience the peace God wants to give them. He’s often associated with joy and laughter. He also works to heal animals and the Earth, so people connect him to animal care and environment efforts. People sometimes ask for his help to heal them of illnesses or wounds that are physical, mental, emotional or spiritual in nature, help them overcome addictions, lead them to love and them safe while traveling. He is the patron saint of people in the medical profession (such as doctors and nurses), patients, counselors, pharmacists, matchmakers and travelers (sacrament of Penance).

St. Gabriel’s name is translated to mean “God is my strength”. He is known as the angel of revelation. God often chooses him to communicate important messages. People sometimes ask him for his help to: clear away confusion and achieve the wisdom they need to make decisions, obtain the confidence they need to act on those decisions, communicate effectively to other people, and to raise children well. He is the patron saint of communicators, journalists, teachers, clergy people, diplomats, ambassadors and postal workers (sacrament of Baptism).

I am the last of the great seven Archangels. I am St. Michael the Archangel, my name translated to mean “who is like God”. I am known for my exceptional strength and courage. I am a leader who reigns as the head of all the angels. I fight for good to prevail over evil. I protect and defend people who love God. You may sometimes ask for my help to: gain the courage you need to overcome your fears, obtain strength to resists temptations to sin and instead do what’s right, and stay safe in dangerous situations. I am the patron saint of the church, sickness, and people who work in dangerous conditions, such as military personnel, police and security officers, and paramedics (sacrament of the Holy Eucharist).

We are the seven Archangels that not only protect the Throne of God, but look down upon you all and protect you. When I battled Lucifer and drove him down to hell with his legion of fallen angels, he and his demons began to roam Earth… pollute it’s inhabitants with his evil, wicked, conniving ways, in hopes to gain the attention from those who are willing to listen to him. He’s looking to build up his army of followers, using his deceptive ways to lure you; taking the form of anything from physical to inanimate. His demons continue to posses not only the weak, but even the faithful, claiming their souls to forever be apart of their dark allegiance.

Lucifer is clever and devious, but our God is intellect and powerful.

It was time for me to mobilize, and with the help of the other trusty and powerful Archangels, we were to set out onto Earth to gather a league of our own. Being the protectors of the Throne, we never leave our Lord’s side… instead, we bestow our gifts and powers onto selected beings, to carry on our task of protecting God’s children and conquering evil. Each one of us will act through the selected individual and guide them; from there, they will be the ones to pass on our word and our gifts unto the next, and continue to build our legion of good to fight against evil. Through the intercession of us seven Archangels, they become your guardians here on Earth.

Angels do exist… we most often times walk among you. Everyday is a physical and spiritual battle, a battle that will not be won by Lucifer and his demons. We firmly plant ourselves within many of you that were called to protect and guard your fellow brothers and sisters here on Earth. We could be anyone, from your neighbor, to your dog. We could even be dwelling within you. I leave you on this note… God is calling you. Are you ready and willing to answer His call?

The sound of feet pounding heavily into the pavement pierced through the silent night like a hot knife through butter. He kept glancing back over his shoulder, seeing nothing but fast shadows quickly closing in on him. He pushed himself harder and faster, taking a sudden sharp turn in hopes to dislodge the ones who were hot pursuit of him.

His shoes scraped painfully against the asphalt as he came to a screeching halt; he came to a dead end. He whirled around, wondering if he had enough time to run back the way he came and continue on his straight path. When he could no longer hear the following footsteps and the harsh breathing that came with it, he decided to take small steps back towards the way he came.

All of a sudden, an object of something or someone immediately swooped down from above, landing right in front of him. His eyes widened at the sight of the person that just fell from the sky and landed right in front of him; he was knelt down on one knee before him, his left arm held high up in the air while his right hand was clenched into a fist, pressing into the ground below him. The being peered up from where he knelt, and slowly rose up from the ground. The boy’s eyes widened in awe as he now found himself staring back at a tall, brawny man; what really captivated him were the pair of large wings that peeked out from behind his shoulders.

Before the boy could say a word, the mysterious man’s wings suddenly fluttered out, fully exposing the long, large feathered wings. He was literally blown back by the light wind force the wings seemed to produce whenever it flapped gently.

“Wh-who are you?” the boy stuttered out as he stumbled backwards. “Wha-what do you want from me?”

The tall man that stood before him had short, jet black hair and dark brown eyes. A steel armored plate laid upon his bare broad chest, complimented with light brown khaki pants. Two gauntlets covered his forearms while a simple gold band ran across his forehead. “My name is Darren, and I’m here to help you.” the man spoke in a deep tone.

The boy shook his head, “N-n-n-no! You’re the one that was chasing me! And now you here… with fucking wings?!”

Darren sighed, “I am not what was chasing you. I was assigned to watch over you and come to your aid when you needed my help.”

“Fuck you!” the boy spat. “This is fucking crazy, you’re nothing but a dude dressed up in a stupid costume. Now, are you gonna let me pass or do I have to scream for help, because I will!”

“I will grant you as you wish… but just know you will come to regret your grave decision.”

“Yeah?” the boy challenged, “Well, I’d rather take my chances fending for myself than to sit here and listen to some guy dressed like an angel.” and with that he started walking off into the darkness, going back the way he came.

Darren could only stand there and watch as the adolescent stalked off into the night, knowing he couldn’t stop him and make him believe, but knew he’d be ready to intervene if he were to end up in trouble. Meanwhile, the young boy continued on his way, not looking back. He couldn’t believe it… some crazy guy with… wings tried to tell him that he was protecting him. But, he couldn’t help than to think… how exactly was he able to fly down and land right in front of him so perfectly?

“Psst, hey kid!”

The boy immediately stopped, looking off into the darkness where he heard the voice come from, “Look crazy fucker, leave me alone!”

“Ooh, so you seen that crazy guy too?” the voice asked.

The boy squinted his eyes as a small, hunched figure emerged from the shadows. He looked to be not much older than him, and he wore brand name clothes. This older boy stuck out like a sore thumb in this alleyway with what he was wearing and how he looked… he looked to be financially well off, yet here he was, lugging around nothing but a backpack.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked the stranger.

“The name’s Devon.” the stranger said as he held his hand out to the younger boy.

The boy simply stared down at the hand, before he eventually reached out to shake it, “Shaun.”

Devon smiled as he hitched his backpack up higher on his shoulder. “Nice to meet you kid. So, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing out here all by yourself?”

Shaun shrugged as he and Devon began walking out of the alleyway. “I ran away from home. Long story short, I’m dealing with a mom who’s always in my shit and a man who’s trying too hard to be my father. I live a lifestyle they don’t approve of.”

Devon’s eyebrow quirked up in interest, “Oh really? What kind of lifestyle is that?”

“Dealing.” was Shaun’s simple reply. “What about you, why are you out here?”

Devon chuckled, “Funny you should mention and ask, because I’m a dealer too.”

Shaun came to a halt, staring at Devon in disbelief, “You? A dealer?”

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Devon asked as he came to a stop too. “Do you see these clothes that I’m wearing? How do you think I got it?”

Shaun chuckled and shrugged, “That must be some good shit you’re dealing to people to get you that kind of money!”

Devon nodded, “I’ll let you in on it… under one condition.”

Shaun cocked his head to the side as he stared at Devon in puzzlement, “I’m listening.”

“I want you to tell me everything you know about that man you met back that way.”

“The crazy man with the fucking wings?” Shaun reconfirmed, to which Devon simply nodded. “Well, you said you seen that crazy man for yourself, there’s really not much more to say about him, other than he’s out of his fucking mind!”

Devon shrugged as they continued walking, “Yeah, I know… but I mean, what was his name and what did he say that he wanted?”

“He said his name was Darren or something. As for what he wanted, he mentioned some stupid shit about being appointed to watch me and has to help me if I get into trouble or some crazy shit like that. I was like yeah, I’m gonna believe a fucking guy in a Halloween costume?! Yeah right!”

“He didn’t want anything from you? Didn‘t make you follow him?”

Shaun shook his head, “Nope… he let me go willingly, but it was all still fucking weird nonetheless.”

Devon scoffed, “He’s a fucking idiot. Anyway, are you ready to see what I have?” he asked as he brought them to a halt again.

Shaun eagerly nodded. “There’s no turning back once you accept this, alright?” Devon warned.

Shaun froze for a moment, truly thinking over what Devon had just told him. No turning back? Before he could question him, Devon shot out and grabbed his arm, yanking and positioned it in front of him.

“Wha-what are you doing?!” Shaun stuttered, his voice wavering in fear as he watched Devon reach into his back pocket and pull out a syringe. “Yo-you’re not gonna shoot me up with THAT, are you?!”

Devon ripped the cap off with his teeth and spat it to the side, “You need to know what you’re dealing with. Just relax… you’ll feel good in a few seconds!”

Shaun eased a bit, but still tried to dislodge his arm out of Devon’s grasp. “You’re hurting me dude!”

Devon quickly plunged the needle down into his arm, causing Shaun to yelp out and try to yank his arm back. “You belong to us now.” Devon growled in a low, unrecognizable voice as he continued to push the unknown substance through the syringe and into Shaun’s now freely bleeding vein.

All of a sudden, Devon was flown backwards by an unseen force. Shaun stumbled back, his hand quickly covering his wounded arm, trying to stop the blood that was now running down his arm from the punctured vein.

Disoriented, Devon rose up from the ground and saw a harsh blue light that seemed to surround Shaun’s hunched figure. He shielded his eyes from the blinding blue light, only to see an armored man with enormous feathered wings standing behind the boy.

“Abdiel!” Darren roared in a booming, authority-like voice.

Shaun quickly whirled around the find Darren, the mysterious man he ran into earlier, standing behind him. He immediately squinted at the harsh blue light that seemed to surround the man and illuminate the once dark alleyway. He quickly backed away from the sight, fear settling deep into the pit of his stomach. Once he felt his back hit the wall, his legs buckled and he let himself crumble to the ground, scared of all that was unfolding before him.

Devon lowered his eyes, “Michael.” he growled in a low tone. He rushed towards the larger being, ready to take him down.

Darren prepared himself, and with the help of his wings, dove and flown his way towards Devon, grabbing the smaller man. He quickly whirled Devon around, so that his back was facing him now, and his arm wrapped tightly across Devon’s chest, holding him firmly against him.

“Let him go!” Shaun begged. Even though Devon shot him up with an unknown drug and was the reason why he’s now bleeding, he did not wanting this strange man to hurt him.

Darren reached behind him and pulled out a long, sharp sword. Before Shaun could protest, Darren quickly thrust his sword into Devon’s awaiting back, piercing right through and coming out of his chest.

Shaun’s eyes widened… he just witnessed a murder. “NOOOO!!!!”

Devon immediately screamed out in pain as he tried desperately to remove the foreign object that was now lodged into his body. His screams suddenly turned to evil laughter, which certainly caught the attention of Shaun. Before Darren could remove his sword, Devon began transforming right before them, the sound of flesh tearing piercing through the night air. Large, bat-like wings grew out from Devon’s back, as his skin continued to tear and fall away, revealing a beast-like creature.

Shaun’s eyes widened upon the sight of the hideous creature that emerged from Devon’s human shell. He was now staring at a winged demon; his flesh was dark, coarse and hairy, his feet and hands turned into claws. His head seemed to have became enlarged itself, his once human eyes had now became large, hallow black orbs. His features became extremely grotesque, as huge, long horns curled out from his skull and spiraled about.

Suddenly, the new beast shot up into the sky, taking flight. Since Darren was still holding on to his sword that was still lodged into the demon’s body, he flew up with the demon as well, both of them flying high into the night sky. Shaun continued to sob at the frightening scene he was witnessing, and just as he was about to push himself up from the ground to run away, two figures fell back down from the sky, landing painfully onto the ground.

Shaun shielded himself from the debris of the concrete ground that shot out from the impact. He looked up to find Darren now laying on the ground, and the demon on top of him. The demon’s claw-like foot was gripped tightly around Darren’s neck, squeezing tightly around his throat, causing Darren to choke out and wheeze for air.

“When will you learn that you still serve for the weak Michael?” the demon snarled as he leaned down towards Darren, his snake-like tongue slithering out as he spoke. “Why do you help souls that are meant to be damned? This is our territory, our souls to collect!” the demon rose a bit and slowly pulled the sword that was still lodged in his back and chest. When he finally pulled it out, he held it high before he tossed it to the ground beside Darren. “Perhaps I’ll let you live to tell your God that we will rise and overtake His throne!”

All of a sudden, the demon was thrown back off of Darren, and was thrown into the wall of the alleyway by an unseen force. Shaun stared amazed at a man who emerged from the darkness, his hand rose as if he were the one that threw the demon off of Darren telekinetically. Behind him walked up two other people, a male and a female. The three of them had different color lights that seemed to have surrounded them. The man who appeared to have telekinetic powers had a dazzling purple light that glowed around him. The female glowed with a pure white light while the other man was embraced by a striking green colored aura.

Darren quickly rose up from the ground and composed himself as best he could. He grabbed his sword and made his way towards the demon, who was recollecting himself. Darren immediately shot his hand out, grabbing the demon by it’s horns and yanking it closer to him. “Perhaps I’ll behead you and send your head down to Lucifer. Maybe he’ll get our message that way.” And with that, he swung his sword, slicing clean through the demon’s neck, beheading him as he said he would.

Shaun gagged as he watched the demon’s head roll on the ground and his grotesque body crumble. Darren simply walked away towards his apparent comrades as the demon’s body burst into flames and quickly disintegrated into nothing but ashes.

“Are you alright?” the woman asked as she began to look Darren over.

Darren simply nodded as he gingerly touched his neck, feeling that his flesh was torn from the demon’s claws. “I’ll be fine.”

“Want me to take a look at that?” one of the men asked as he tried to inch closer to inspect the wound.

Darren shook his head, “No… perhaps you can check on the boy.”

Shaun stared at the group of four people in awe. They all had an enormous pair of feathered wings, and were dressed similar in a warrior-like attire. The woman looked to be a little shorter than him, and wore a gladiator looking dress, with her forearms sporting gauntlets. She seemed to be of Mexican descent, and her short bobbed brown hair made her features stand out beautifully.

The other two men were dressed similar to Darren, both sporting armored chest plates, khaki pants and gauntlets; and the four of them all had a gold band that ran across their forehead. The man that had a green aura seemed to be the tallest of the four, a bit lanky but still well built. He had long, flowing blonde hair that hit the top of his shoulder and blew freely in the wind. The other man that had a purple aura was a little shorter than Darren, but not by much. He seemed to be the burliest one of them all, and had black hair that was spiked up.

When Shaun finally noticed the group of four were now staring straight at him, he began to scramble up from the ground unsuccessfully, collapsing back down when he realized his injured arm was too weak to support his weight. “P-p-please… don’t hurt me!”

The tall, blond man held his hands out, in hopes to calm the scared teen a bit. “We’re not gonna hurt you. We want to help you.”

Finally, Shaun was able to push himself up from the ground with his good arm and quickly covered his now slow bleeding arm. He wanted to run away, but couldn’t bring his body to do what his mind commanded him to do. He felt extremely weak all of a sudden. “I… I don’t want your…” he slurred out as he felt his knees buckle and his legs give way.

The blond man quickly shot out and caught the young boy before he crumbled back down to the ground. “Oh man.” he sighed as he slowly eased Shaun to lay down on the ground of the alley. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”

“But you can still heal him, right?” the woman asked as she walked up and knelt beside them.

“I can try… but he’s already lost a lot of blood. I think I can get the punctured vein to stop bleeding and heal it, but he’ll definitely need a transfusion.”

Darren nodded as he made his way towards them, “Do what you must Josh.”

Just as the blond man, named Josh, placed his hands over Shaun’s injured arm, prepared to heal, he was suddenly flown backwards. The three of them looked back at Josh, who was picking himself up from the ground, then focused their attention back on Shaun, who’s eyes were rolled back into his head and was now convulsing.

“Logan, check on Josh. Gabriella, I need you to help me hold him down.” Darren instructed.

Logan nodded and jogged over towards Josh, who was hunched over a bit. “Hey, you alright?”

Josh simply nodded as he straightened himself up. “Yeah… there’s a negative energy within him that’s trying to get out and consume him. I have to expel it before I can try to heal him.”

“Josh, hurry!” Gabriella shouted as both she and Darren struggled with holding the now thrashing boy down.

Josh and Logan quickly made their way back over towards them. “There is an entity within him… I have to expel it before I can heal him.”

“Do whatever you need to do, just hurry!” Darren gritted out.

Logan moved in to help Darren and Gabriella hold Shaun’s body down while Josh resumed his position. He examined Shaun’s injured arm, noticing that there was a black line that seemed to course through his vein, which meant the entity was close to possessing the young boy. Josh closed his eyes and placed both of his hands over the wound, allowing himself to surrender and calling forth St. Raphael the Archangel to enter his body and help expel the evil entity.

Darren, Gabriella and Logan loosened their hold a bit on Shaun when they noticed that he had stopped thrashing about and slowly seemed to calm down. When Josh opened his eyes, his orbs seemed to glow a fierce emerald green, signs that an angelic being had dwelled within him. Within seconds, his green eyes dissipated, revealing his natural blue colored eyes once more. He was relieved to find that the black line that was coursing through the vein slowly began to disappear.

“Now I can heal him.” Josh voiced as he placed his hand over the wound again. Between his hand and Shaun’s arm was a faint green glow that slowly intensified. When he removed his hand, sparkles of green light seemed to flutter about, and they all sighed in relief when they no longer saw a puncture wound on his arm… he was healed.

“He’ll need a blood transfusion though.” Josh reminded as they all rose up from the ground.

Darren nodded, “I’ll call him help. As of right now though, we have more pressing manners on our hands.”

“Like the fact that we just learned that these monsters can possess people however now?” Logan asked.

Darren sighed, knowing Logan was partially right. These demons were now trying to possess humans by any means necessary. They were violating God’s law of allowing humans free will… no longer was Lucifer and his demons using trickery and their manipulative ways to lure in vulnerable souls, but they were forcing themselves upon them, easily possessing souls any way they could. Lucifer was steadily trying to increase his army. “We need to hurry… we don’t have much time.”

“What do you suppose we do?” Gabriella questioned. “We haven’t found, nor were we informed of suitable candidates.”

Logan shook his head, “That’s not true. I had a vision of four successors. That’s definitely a sign that we’re close to finding our four suitors.”

“What else can you tell us about these four?” Josh asked curiously.

Logan shrugged, “Not much honestly… I just have this deep connection with my successor. He’s a male, one who specializes in what Uriel is considered the Archangel of… poetry and music. He’s definitely got this fire about him, especially an eternal flame within his soul. He’s made many dark mistakes in his past, ones that could have claimed his life, but through self retribution, he was able to correct his path.”

“Self retribution?” Josh repeated. “We’re not dealing with someone who mutilates themselves with every committed sin, are we?”

Logan shook his head, “No, not that type of retribution. I’m currently unsure of what the means are, but it’s something he continues to do to help him find his way once more when he strays.”

Darren nodded, “We need to find these four… and quickly.”

“So, your vision brought us here to Ohio.” Gabriella voiced as she and the group casually walked through the city of Columbus. “What exactly are we looking for?”

Logan shrugged, “I’m not sure yet… I’ll let you know what I feel like we’re getting close.”

“Did you guys know that a song called “Hang On Sloppy” is the official state rock song?” Josh asked no one in particular as he scanned through an Ohio tourist pamphlet and munched away on a hotdog he had brought from a stand earlier. “This thing is so informative.”

Darren shot the younger man a look, “Have you never been to Ohio Josh?”

Josh shook his head as he took another large bite of his hotdog. “Nooomp.” he managed to say as chewed his food. “Ooooh wow, did you guys know this state gave America it’s first hotdog in 1900?”

The other three immediately stopped walking, turning to give him a ‘are you fucking kidding me?’ look. “I’m serious!” Josh exclaimed, pointing to the pamphlet. “It says here a man by the name of Harry M. Steven created the popular dining dog!” he took yet another bite of his hotdog. “Man… no wonder there were sooo many hotdog stands we passed by!”

Gabriella rolled her eyes, “Thank you Captain Informative.”

As the group continued to walk along the streets of Columbus, they passed by a large arena. Gabriella looked up at the large structure and did a double take. Schottenstein Center. She slowed to a stop as the other three continued walking; this place looked so familiar to her, but why? She’s never been here, let alone have been to Ohio before, but she remembers seeing this center.

“Hey, you guys?” she called out, causing the other three to finally stop walking and turn around to look at her. She pointed up towards Schottenstein Center, “I’ve seen this before.”

“Schottenstein Center?” Darren asked as he walked up beside her. “It’s an arena.”

Gabriella nodded, “I’ve definitely seen this building… like I’ve been here before.” And that’s when it hit her… she remembered this place because she had a dream of coming here a few weeks ago. In her dream, she was by herself when she wandered up to this arena. “That’s what it was, I had a dream of coming to this place! Do you guys think that means something?”

Logan shrugged as he began walking up towards the entrance of the center. “I think it means we’re getting real close guys… I say we check it out.”

Darren and Gabriella nodded as they followed Logan up to the entrance of the center. Meanwhile, Josh had busied himself in finishing off his hotdog and reading the interesting facts of Ohio that he didn’t even realize his friends had left him. “Hey, did you guys know that fifty percent of the United States population lives within a five-hundred mile radius of Columb-” he cut himself off when he looked up to no longer see his friends, and that he was standing there, talking to himself.

“Guys?” he asked as he looked around, finally finding them near the entrance of the arena. “Hey, wait for me!” he shouted as he tossed his rubbish into the nearest trash bin and ran over towards where they were.

“What do you’ll think we’ll find here?” Gabriella asked no one in particular as they walked through the large doors of the center.

Logan began to look over the posters of sports and concert dates, as well as the sports and music memorabilia that decorated the foyer of the large arena. “I’ll let you guys know when I feel him.”

“When you feel him?” Josh repeated, as he now caught up with the group. “What do you mean?”

“His presence is definitely here… the question is, where?”

As they continued to wander through, Logan bypassed a poster tacked to the wall that definitely caught his attention and caused him to stop and stare at it. On the poster were nine men with big letters printed that said “NKOTBSB”. Above each individual were names, what he presumed to be their last names, and the information read as such: “New Kids On The Block - Backstreet Boys. One night, one stage. Once in a lifetime.”

He continued to stare at it until he finally broke his attention from it and caught up with the rest of the gang, who were now standing outside doors that led into the actual arena itself. For some reason, the doors were closed and were guarded by the Schottenstein Center’s security guards.

“Excuse me, sir?” Darren called out, catching the attention of one of the security guards.

“If you’re here for the sound check party, continue on down that way and enter through those doors.” the guard replied as he pointed off in his left direction.

Darren’s face contorted in confusion, “Sound check party? No, we’d like to get into the arena sir, if that’s okay.”

The guard scoffed, “Yeah, you and fifty million other people! Look, if you don’t have any sound check passes, then you have no business being here. The show doesn’t start till later on tonight, 7:00 to be exact, so come back then.”

“So, there’s people in there?” Josh asked.

The guard shot him a pointed look, “What part of ‘sound check party’ do you not understand? Of course there’s people in there! And apparently, since you guys don’t have passes, it looks like you WON’T be joining those people in there, now will you?”

Josh immediately glared at the burly man, before being pushed back by Logan and Darren. Gabriella sweetly waltzed up to the obviously agitated guard, smiling as they batted her beautiful, innocent brown eyes. “Sir… I’m sorry that we tend to be asking you questions that definitely seem to be riling you up.” as the man stared into Gabriella’s hypnotizing brown eyes, he began to feel himself calm a bit. “It’s just that…” she continued, “we really need to get in there, because we’re looking for somebody.” she placed her hand gently upon his shoulder as her eyes began to gleam pearly white orbs. “Won’t you help us?”

Instead of fearing the fact that the woman’s eyes had just turned completely white, the man simply nodded, as if in a trance. “Yes… come right this way.” he said as he stood up from where he sat and pushed the door open for them to walk through.

“Thank you.” Gabriella replied sweetly as she leaned in to give him a chaste kiss on his cheek, “Your kindness shall be rewarded.” she whispered before she pulled away and walked in through the doors, leading the other three in as well.

The guard simply nodded, “My pleasure.” he said as he closed the door behind them and sat back down on his chair. A few seconds later, he quickly shook his head, as if to rid himself of thoughts that seemed to be floating in his mind. He glanced around, not able to recollect what had just happened. Shrugging, he focused himself back on guarding the doors.

“What was that about?!” Josh asked incredulously as they now made their way over towards where the “sound check party” was being held. “Did you promise to show him your goodies later or something?”

Gabriella chuckled sarcastically and rolled her eyes, “No, I did not flirt with the man if that’s what you mean. Lets just say… I have the gift of persuasion.”

“Alright you guys,” Darren spoke out, “time to tune ourselves off, we’re here for a reason. May we not be distracted and lets spread out.”

The group nodded as they all dispersed into different directions. Gabriella, Josh and Darren resulted in looking through the crowd while Logan seemed to be drawn towards the people that were on the stage. There were four men that were on the stage, that were joking around with each other, answering questions and singing whatever song that was requested. He’s never heard their music before, but he listened in.

“When you come back I won’t be here… she said and gently pulled me near… if you wanna talk, you can call… and no it‘s not your fault…” Logan stared at the man with dirty blond hair that started the melodic song off. “I just smiled and said ‘let go of me’… now there’s, something I just gotta know… did someone else steal my part? She said it’s not my fault…”

When the other three chimed in with the chorus, Logan was taken aback at how amazing their harmonies sounded. It blended together so well, so smooth, so effortlessly. “Then my heart did time in Siberia, was waiting for a lie to come true, cause it’s all so dark and mysterious, when the one you want doesn’t want you too…”

“I was drifting in between… like I was, on the outside looking in, yeah…” Logan stared wide eyed at the bald man who was singing this next verse. Though they were indoors, the man wore dark sunglasses to hide his eyes from the world. He was sporting dark facial hair and sideburns and was covered in tattoos. His voice was booming, raspy yet velvety, and he seemed to sing with so much passion. “In my dreams you are still here, like you’ve always been…”

Logan’s eyes widened as the group of four began with the chorus once again. That man… he was the one! He’s the one they’ve been looking for! But what of the three? Could those three other men also be the ones that were being called to serve?

As the song began to wrap up, Logan made his way back towards the entrance, to which he saw Gabriella walking up to him as well. “How did you…” Logan started.

“I am telepathic you know!” Gabriella reminded jokingly, “I was tapping into each of you to see if any of us had luck. Once I picked up on the positive confirmation from you, I set out to find you and had informed the others as well.”

Josh made his way through the crowd and over towards them when he had received Gabriella’s telepathic message. “Where’s the guy?”

Logan pointed up towards the stage, straight at the bald man, who was now wearing a hat. “That’s him… that’s the guy?”

“Are you sure?” Josh asked just as Darren approached them, “This guy looks like he could kick our asses if he wanted to.”

Logan simply nodded, “I’m positive. He’s a direct match with the presence I’ve been feeling.”

Darren slapped a reassuring hand down upon Logan’s shoulder, “Good job guys. Now, we just have to find the remaining three.”

Logan glanced back up at the stage, dismayed when he saw the group exiting off the stage. “I think I know who the other three might be…” he said as he walked them over towards the nearest poster that was tacked on the wall. He simply pointed to the poster of nine men.

“NKOTBSB?” Gabriella questioned in a weird tone. “But, there’s nine of them.”

“They’re two different groups.” Logan explained as he tried to point the four men out he saw up on stage. “I believe these four men make up one group… the group that was just up on stage.”

“I know of New Kids On The Block, but not this other group.” Darren stated as he continued to stare at the poster.

“Oooooh, I didn’t know those guys were performing, I love New Kids On The Block!” Josh exclaimed excitedly as he began to do their signature pendulum dance. “Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh… ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh… ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh… the right stuff!” Josh came to a stop when he found three pairs of eyes staring at him. “What? It’s a classic!” he said innocently.

Logan shook his head, “Anyway, I believe that these four, these Backstreet Boys, are the one we’re looking for.”

“Celebrities?” Josh quipped. “These four musicians are going to be our successors? I highly doubt that.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Darren simply stated.

Josh sighed, “But… this is gonna be hard!”

Gabriella glanced over at the group of people she assumed to be their staff. “Not quite.” she replied with a smile.

Josh glanced over towards where she was looking, “Don’t tell me you’re gonna offer your goodies up to those dudes and one woman.”

Gabriella playfully slapped Josh as she rolled her eyes, “Will you stop it with that? The only way we can get close to these guys is if we work for them.”

“As what?” Logan questioned, “Three security guards and one makeup artist?”

Gabriella cocked an eyebrow, “I do NOT do other people’s makeup, thank you very much! I’d do what I do best… protect people.”

Josh laughed, “Yeah… a female security guard, that’s rich! Don’t you wish you had Darren’s little nifty trick right now, so you could transform into a dude? Perhaps if you ask Gabriel, he could change you!”

“Are you ready to be serious?” Gabriella asked in a pointed tone, which immediately quieted the humorous one. “Okay, we gotta think of something because it’s not like we can just waltz up to them, asking for a job.”

“What about your gift of persuasion?” Logan suggested.

“I can do that no problem. It’s just that… we can’t walk up as a group of four random people, seeking to join their team.”

Meanwhile, Darren was watching and observing the group of staff members that were milling around. When he noticed one of the security guards, an African American man, walk away from the group, his eyes began to gleam a dazzling blue color as he observed the man, from head to toe. Once he had a mental picture of the man, from his body, height, face, to even his clothing and accessories, his eyes returned to its chocolate brown color as he looked over at the three. “I have an idea.”

~*~*~*~

“Hey, can we make sure the wardrobe is all organized on the racks?” a short brunette questioned to her staff members. “Last gig, it was not organized, and we had everyone scrambling to find the boys their attire; I do NOT want that to happen ever again, especially tonight!”

“Hey Jen!” a male’s voice called out to her.

The woman, named Jen, turned to the voice that was calling out to her. “Q!” she simply replied before she went back to instructing people of what to do.

“I was looking everywhere for you!” Q said as he began to follow her around the arena.

“Weird…” Jen muttered in a low tone, “because you had just walked away from us not too long ago, and… as you can see, we were still in the same place.”

“Right…” Q replied in an uneasy tone. “Anyway, I have this really good friend who’s looking for a job, and I need you to help hook it up!”

Jen shot a look at him, as if he had lost his mind. “Q… you know good and well we aren’t hiring and that we just DON’T hire random people!”

“But these people aren’t random! They’re my friends, and let me tell you, they’re DAMN good at what they do! You see that guy over there?” he asked as he pointed over towards Logan. “He’s one of them.”

Jen squinted her eyes to see where he was pointing. “You mean the guy standing by the tall blond and the chick?” she asked, to which Q nodded. “The blond guy and the chick are your friends looking for work too?”

Once again, Q nodded. “Yes, and there’s also another guy, who probably ran off to the bathroom or something.”

“Let me get this straight…” Jen drawled out as she turned to solely focus her attention on Q. “You want me to hire your four friends because they’re looking for jobs?”

Q’s eyes looked off to the side, as if he were thinking, until he finally nodded. “Uh… yes.”

“And what do you suppose they’d do? The three guys be security guards and I make the woman a makeup artist?”

“Well… the girl doesn’t do makeup on other people. She protects.”

“She protects?” Jen repeated, making sure she heard her friend right.

“Yes… don’t let her looks fool you, she’s amazing at what she does and has been doing, which is guarding people.”

Jen could only stare at Q as if he had lost his mind. “I don’t know if I…”

“Please.” Q interjected. “Please, do this for me. At least just talk to the group for me, and then make your decision.”

Jen remained silent as she continued to stare at the three people. While the two men looked as if they could be valuable assets to the team, she found it truly weird that he would ask her to consider a female to be a security guard as well. She figured, all he wants is for her to talk to them, and then make her decision… she could at least do that. “Fine!”

Q smiled and grabbed Jen in a tight hug. “Thank you! You won’t regret it, I promise!” he said as he jogged off, leaving Jen alone to approach his friends.

Jen simply sighed as she handed the clipboard she was holding to a fellow co-worker. “Take three, I’ll be right back.” she announced as she began making her way over towards the three who seemed to be waiting for her.

“Hi.” she greeted with a genuine smile. “You guys’ must be Q’s friends. My name’s Jen.” she introduced as she held her hand out.

“Logan.” the man replied as he shook her hand.

The female was next. “Gabriella, but you can just call me Gabi.”

“Josh.” he was the last to introduce himself as he shook her hand.

The smile remained on Jen’s face. “Nice to meet you all. I believe there’s one more, from what he said to me…”

“Right here!”

They all turned to the voice and saw a man jogging up to them. “Sorry, I bumped into Q and got wrapped up in talking to him for a bit. I’m Darren.” he said as he shook her hand.

“Jen.” she replied. “So, I heard you four are looking for a job? He’s also mentioned that you guys are the best at what you do.”

Gabriella nodded, “Yes, we are very good at what we do.” she placed her hand upon Jen’s shoulder as she spoke, her eyes turning white once again. “We’d love for you to give us the positions of being security guards.”

An unexplainable feeling suddenly overcame Jen, making her feel extremely calm and completely fine with everything going on in the world. “Of course, which is why I came over here to address you four! If Q says you guys are the best, then we want nothing but the best on our team, and having met you guys only seconds ago, I feel like this is truly meant to be! I have a feeling that you four will be true assets to our squad. Welcome to the Backstreet family!”

The four beamed proudly, until Josh lightly elbowed Darren in his ribs, “Uh oh, trouble coming, ten o’clock!”

The four turned to find Q walking up to them, and their smiles immediately fell. “Hey Jen, I was looking for ya girl.” Q said as he walked up beside Jen. “Who are these guys?” he asked as he looked the four over.

Eyes widened, Gabriella immediately shot her hand out, grabbing Q’s arm. “Ahh Q, always the jokester! Remember, you just asked Jen if she could hire us because we’re your good friends that we looking for a job.” her eyes turned white once again.

Q found himself hypnotized by the shorter woman’s stare. “Aww yeah man, that’s right! So, what’s the status Jen? Are they good or what?”

Jen simply nodded, “They’re officially apart of the Backstreet team.”

“Great… thank you guys.” Jen said with a smile as her eyes began to turn back to normal. “Would you guys be able to introduce us to exactly whom we’d be guarding for?”

“Absolutely!” Jen exclaimed as she signaled Q to move the arena barrier that separated them. “Come on back this way and I’ll introduce you all to the guys.”

Gabriella threw a look back at the four, who only grinned and shook their heads as they followed Jen underneath the stage. “These four are truly great and genuine guys.” Jen informed them, “Having that said, they tend to be rather mischievous and funny, though they’re all grown adults.” she joked as she led them into the changing room. “I’m sure they’re around here somewhere…” she muttered to herself as she began to look for the boys she has come to call her brothers.

“What it is Jen?!” a tall blond man asked as he crept up from the side. “What you looking for?”

“Not what, who.” she corrected as she grabbed the blond by his arm and gently pulled him over towards them. “And I’m looking for you guys, where the rest of the fellas?”

The blond shrugged, “Around here somewhere.”

“Aye yo Nick, Donnie wants to shoot some hoops!” another man, who had dirty blond hair, voiced as he bounced up towards them. “Two on two… me and you against Donnie and Jordan!”

“Brian!” Jen exclaimed as she also grabbed him by his arm and brought him over. “Now we just need the other two…”

“I’ll go get those two.” Q said as he walked away, in search for the other two members.

“Okay… Nick and Brian, I want you guys to meet the newest additions to the security team! This is Josh, Logan, Darren and Gabi.” Jen introduced.

Nick and Brian held out their hands to shake the hands of the other four. “Nice to meet ya’ll.” Brian spoke in his Southern twang, his genuine smile plastered on his face.

“I do NOT want to hear another one of your lame jokes AJ!” they suddenly heard Q say in a monotone voice. They turned to see him walking in with the other two members, who immediately came to a stop upon seeing the four new people.

Being the charmer that he naturally was, the tattooed man immediately introduced himself to the four. “Hello, the name’s AJ.”

As he went down the line of shaking the men’s hands, when he came to Gabriella, he smiled warmly as he shook her hand. “Gabriella…” he repeated her name. “Such a beautiful name. Nice to meet you sweetheart.”

The shorter brunette man, they've come to know as Howie, was the next to personally introduce himself before asking Jen if they were fans. “No fellas… these are your new security guards, as in they will be joining our team and tour.”

The four men, they’ve come to known as the Backstreet Boys, all smiled warmly at their new recruits. Darren, Josh, Logan and Gabriella simply looked over at each other, knowing deep down inside that this was it… these were the four that God has selected.

“So, security stays on the same level of the guys while the rest of the staff are located on the level right below. I hope you guys don’t mind staying together.” Jen said as she pushed the hotel door open, leading them into their new room that they’d be staying in.

The four of them slowly trailed in behind, looking over the large hotel room. It was complete with two queen sized beds and a large couch, that more than likely could pull out into a bed. “Gabi, if you’re uncomfortable with sharing a room with the guys, I can look into getting your own room or something, and if unavailable, you can… perhaps room with me.”

“I’ll be perfectly fine rooming with these guys.” Gabriella replied with a smile, “They’re like my brothers, so it’s totally fine.”

Jen nodded, “Well, I’ll let you guys get settled in. We’ll have a training session bright and early tomorrow morning, so you guys have a goodnight.” she bid as she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

“Will you guys check this out?!” Josh exclaimed excitedly as he kicked off his shoes and socks and jumped up on one of the queen sized beds, beginning to jump up and down on it. “We went from traveling around, saving people to staying in a luxurious hotel!” he flopped down on the bed, sitting on the edge of it. “I could get used to this!”

Darren gave him a pointed look, “Josh, lets keep our game face on. You know we’re here for a reason and that we gotta protect these men until we are able to transfer over what we possess.”

Josh began to nibble on his lower lip, knowing he was right. He just couldn’t help but to be excited with where they now found themselves. He’s been traveling with this group for the last few years now, protecting people with the other appointed guardians that were blessed by the Archangels. He was no one special… just a guy aspiring to be a doctor. He struggled with all the prep that came with the career, and instead resulted with studying to become a paramedic.

He’d never forget the name of his predecessor. Tracy. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, with thin black hair and streaks of platinum blonde, and the most beautiful hazel eyes you could ever find yourself staring into. She was younger than him, could have been a senior in college, and was a nurse. He was first introduced to her when the training he attended brought him to the hospital she worked at. She was the nurse assisting with the training, helping to teach aspiring paramedics tips upon bringing a patient into the emergency room. It was after that day, his life changed forever.

He hadn’t realized that she had been blessed by Archangel Raphael until she saved him from a woman he tried to help, which was actually a demon in disguise. From there, he was introduced to a world he never knew existed, and of course then she didn’t inform him that God has selected him to be her successor. Following that event, they dated for a while, until Lucifer tried to tear them apart and foil God’s plans of building his army. During the attack, Josh was severely injured and his soul was close to being possessed. Tracy was the only one that could save him, but the damage done was too great.

Josh will never forget that moment. He was laying on the ground, in excruciating pain, desperately trying to fight off the evil entity that was trying to overtake him. Tracy was knelt beside him, tears cascading down her face as she frantically tried to heal him. Behind her was Archangel Raphael, who tried to help her. Tracy’s eyes were glowing a fierce green, as she tried to surrender herself to Raphael to work on him, but he remembered hearing his voice speak out to her.

The only way to save him is to lay down a life for a life…

Josh wanted to fight against that option, but the pain he was in made him unable to do anything but moan and cry in discomfort. From there, everything seemed to set into slow motion. He found himself staring up in Tracy’s captivating hazel eyes, her black hair blowing in the wind. A lone tear cascaded down her cheek as she placed her hand on his chest, directly over his heart. She rose his head to her as she leaned down to hover over his face.

“Die before you die, so when you die, you will have life.” she whispered before she gently kissed him, locking her lips with his for what she knew to be the last time. She pressed hard down upon his heart, and from there a blinding green light surrounded them.

Josh could feel the demon that was trying to possess him immediately leave him, and when he opened her eyes to stop Tracy from healing him, his eyes widened upon seeing Tracy’s earthly form disintegrate right before him, her flesh and bones burning away into nothing but ashes right before him.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” he screamed out as he shot up from the ground, desperately trying to grab for Tracy, who was nothing more. His hand went right through her ashy remains, that blew away carelessly with the wind.

“Hey, Josh!”

Josh snapped out of his trance, realizing he was caught in a flashback. He looked over at Logan who called out to him, seeing that his face was contorted in concern. “You alright man? You just blanked out on us dude.”

Josh simply nodded, looking around to find himself still seated at the edge of the bed, Logan seated next to him and Darren and Gabriella off to the side, discussing something amongst themselves. “Yeah, sorry. Just excited to be here is all.”

Logan continued to stare at his friend, knowing it was more than that, but didn’t want to press the manner. “Just making sure. You and I are gonna bunk together while Darren takes the couch. Gabriella will have her own bed.”

“These are the times I wish I was a chick.” Josh joked, trying to lighten the mood and shake himself from the depressing temperament he suddenly found himself in. “Get a bed to myself.”

“Why, you don’t want to share a bed with me?” Logan tried to joke back, but was unsuccessful when Josh’s expression remained solemn.

“Do you remember how we all individually got to this point?” Josh suddenly asked, his mind still on his beloved Tracy.

Logan stared at him, “It’s something I’ll never forget. Why do you ask?”

Before he could get an answer, there was a sudden knock on the door, which caught all their attentions. Josh’s eyes averted from the door to the ground, “Nothing.” he replied as he pushed himself up from the bed and walked over towards the door. When he looked out the peephole, he backed away with a smile, twisting the doorknob and opening the door for their guests.

“Hey peeps!” Brian greeted excitedly, with Nick and AJ standing behind him.

Josh smiled as he held the door open, allowing the three to walk into their hotel room. “Hey yourselves!”

Nick immediately his way over towards the closest bed and flopped down on the edge of it. Some people would find that action rude, but there was none of that to be had amongst them. They were all apart of the big Backstreet family, and these new guys would come to see him as their annoying, pestering brother. “Now that you guys are all settled in, what are you guys up to?”

Logan shrugged as he sat himself down on the couch, “Not much, ain’t nothing much for us to do.”

Nick gave a mischievous grin, to which it made the four of them groan inwardly. They had been warned about their behavior before hand by Jen… now they were witnessing it. “Perfect, because you guys are coming out with us!”

“And just where are you guys going?” Gabriella asked in a light motherly tone.

“We, are taking you guys out.” AJ stated matter-of-factly. “You can say that it’s a tradition that we take out our new employees to enjoy their last night of freedom and sanity.”

Logan cocked an eyebrow, “In other words, giving us a last chance to back out and run away while we still can?”

The three laughed and nodded, “Guess you could say that. But on the real, we treat them to a toast… thanking them ahead for the long hours they’ll put in, the relentless tasks to be asked of them, for putting up with us and for sticking with us till the end.” Brian explained. “It ain’t easy guarding a celebrity, a Backstreet Boy at that… I, for one, wouldn’t want to guard this prick over here.” he joked as he playfully shoved Nick’s shoulder.

“And why exactly would that be Rok?”

“Because you drive us all crazy!”

As the three continued to joke around, obviously entertaining them all, Darren tried to read Nick and Brian. They already knew that AJ would be Logan’s successor, and watching the way the two interacted in this moment made it obvious. But, he had to figure out who the other three would succeed.

“So, you guys are gonna have us start working already with watching you guys?” Darren interjected jokingly, “We haven’t even received our training yet.”

Brian slapped a reassuring hand down upon Darren’s shoulder, “Not to worry buddy, this night is for you guys. We take care of each other.”

In that moment, Darren felt a weird connection to Brian, but tried to shake it off for now; he’d figure it later. Tonight, as Brian said, was for them… or, as Darren saw it, for his three comrades. He wouldn’t drink and partake in the festivities, knowing he’d have to remain aware and keep a vigilant eye on everyone, but deep down inside he knew what lied ahead for all of them. He figured, a night of celebrating before things got crazy for his three friends wouldn’t hurt.

Darren smiled and nodded, “Alright. Lets party.”

~*~*~*~

“Oooooh my GAAAAWWWWSSSSSHHHHH, I haven’t been this drunk in my LIFE!!!” Logan squealed as he stumbled his way and crashed into Josh’s back, who was sitting by himself at the bar. He began to laugh hysterically when he found his face smashed into Josh’s back.

“You haven’t been this drunk in a long time or you’ve never been this drunk in your life?” Josh corrected with a chuckle as he downed another shot of whiskey.

“What’s the difference?” Logan asked as he tried to push himself up on the empty barstool next to Josh. “Why are you… why are you sitting here by yourself?”

“A man can’t enjoy drinks by himself and delve into his own thoughts?” Josh asked as he put his glass down for another shot.

Logan stared long and hard at his friend that seemed so complex at the moment. “Dude… are you sure yuuur okay?” he slurred his question. “Yo-yo-you’ve kinda been this way… since back at the hotel. Talk to me bro. Whaaatsthaamaatteerr?”

Josh downed his new ordered shot and slammed the glass down on the bar. He was frustrated at the moment, not with Logan, but with the fact that he couldn’t drown his thoughts and sorrows in alcohol like he used to be able to. His gift could at times be considered a curse; his ability to heal others as well as himself now made him unable to be affected at all by alcohol. Although it was a good thing, because he could never get drunk, it totally defeated the purpose of drinking alcohol to take your mind off of things.

“I can’t get drunk.” Josh finally replied, knowing that that was only half the truth. His mind was still set on Tracy, and no matter how hard he tried to forget the negatives and remember the positive, like the fact that she gave her life for him and now lives within him, he just couldn’t help than to think that it was his fault.

Logan shook his head, “That’s not all. But…….. I won’t push it on you man. Just smile bro… like you said, here we are, being treated to drinks by celebrities! Live your life dude!”

Josh began to twirl the empty shot glass around on the bar. “Die before you die, so that when you day, you will have life…” he muttered, more to himself.

Logan tried to lean in to hear his friend, “Whaaaat?”

After a moment of silence, Josh stopped playing with the empty glass and pushed himself up off the barstool. “I’ll be back, I have to use the bathroom.” he said as he left Logan alone at the bar.

Logan simply shrugged as he pushed himself off the stool and made his way back towards the rest of the group. “WHO’S READY FOR ANOTHER ROUND?!?” he exclaimed as he threw his hands up in the air.

Brian stumbled over towards him and threw his arm around his shoulder, “You’ve gotta be the craziest, coolest drunk ever… right after AJ!” It was decided once they got to the bar that since Darren wouldn’t be drinking at all, Gabriella would only be having a few drinks, Josh seemed unaffected and Logan was drinking whatever was handed his way… that the boys’ would allow themselves loose and to drink as well. Brian and Logan seemed to be the only ones that were drunk, while Nick, AJ and Howie were simply buzzed.

Gabriella strolled her way over towards Darren, who was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. “At ease soldier.” she joked before taking a swig of her beer. “You need to relax.”

Darren chuckled, “What makes you think I’m not relaxed?”

“Oh, I don’t know… could be the fact that you’re standing guard, stiff as a board with your arms across your chest.”

Darren slowly unfolded his arms from across his chest and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Better?”

“Much.” Gabriella replied with a smile as she placed her bottle to her lips again. “Now, don’t make me distract you from your deep thoughts because I will.”

“You shouldn’t be reading my mind without permission.” Darren laughed.

“For your information sir, I am not reading your mind. It’s called I’m a good friend who’s known you for years and I can read right through you.” she replied with a wink.

Darren’s attention immediately shot over at Josh, who was wandering out from the bathroom and back over towards the bar. “I do, however, give you permission to read his mind.” he sighed, “he’s starting to concern me.”

Gabriella looked over at Josh as well, “He won’t let me in too deep with his thoughts… but it deals with one thing and one thing only.”

Darren stared long and hard at the troubled younger man, easily reading the heartbreak that seemed to be so evident within his now dark eyes. “Tracy.”

Gabriella nodded before taking a final swig of her beer, finishing it off. “He needs to stop blaming himself.”

Darren nodded before his attention was averted back the group he now found himself babysitting. Logan was holding up a shot glass filled with a dark colored amber liquid, “A toast… to these Backstreet Boys! For being the coolest cats on the planet! For giving us a job and giving us a chance to protect you like God wants us to!”

Gabriella quickly made her way over towards Logan, yanking his arm down, “Alright, you’ve had enough to drink there buddy.”

As she grabbed the shot glass out of his hand, Logan began to cry. Gabriella immediately grabbed his face, forcing him to focus in on her. “What’s the matter sweetie? Why are you crying?”

“I just… I really love you guys, you know that?!” Logan sobbed as he grabbed Gabriella and pulled her in for a tight embrace. “We’ve known each other for so long and been through so much together. We’ve saved so many lives and fought evil too many times to count!”

Gabriella shot a look over at the four, glad that they were too intoxicated to know or even care what Logan was talking about. “Well, we love you too Logan!”

“And YOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU!!!” he cried out once more as he shot his hand out for AJ, “I feel like I’ve known you since FOREVER!!! We’re gonna do great things together and I’ll teach you a lot of great things!! You’re gonna be the brother I’ve always wanted, but never had!”

Gabriella tried desperately to drag his him away from the four before he revealed too much, but Logan quickly tugged away from her and grabbed at Brian and Nick, pulling them in for a hug. “AND I LOVE YOU GUYS… sooo, sooo, sooo much! I know we just met, but… I love you guys, and will do anything to protect you. ANYTHING!!!”

Darren finally intervened and grabbed Logan, hauling him up and away from the group, “Alright buddy, you’ve had TOO much to drink! Lets get you back to the hotel bud.”

~*~*~*~

“You arrrrrrreeeee… my fiiiiireeeeee, my one… desiiiiiirrrrrrreeeeee, beeelieve… when I saaaaay, I want it thaaaat waaaaayyyy!!”

Darren closed his eyes and shook his head as he listened to Brian and Logan sing one of the group’s songs horribly off key. They were all crammed in the elevator, riding up to their floor to go back to their rooms.

“Tell me whhhhhyyyyyy…” they belted out just as the elevator doors slid open, to which they were told be quiet by Josh.

“Sorry!” both Brian and Logan whispered at the same time, to which caused them to both bust out laughing. “Jinx, you owe me another shot!” Brian cracked.

Logan tried to unsuccessfully compose himself, “No can do buddy… we had… too much to drink!”

“Tell me whhhhhhyyyyyyyyy!!” Brian sung out off key again as he dropped dramatically to his knees in the middle of the hallway.

Nick and AJ snickered as they pulled their older friend up to his feet. “I really feel bad when you get drunk Brian.” AJ laughed as both he and Nick tried to carry Brian’s drunken stupor over to his room.

“Why?” Brian slurred out as he placed his head upon Nick’s shoulder.

“I feel bad that I didn’t know you guys were the one that sang that epic song!” Logan interrupted as he tried to walk alongside the three of them. “I must say, that was the… BEST song EVER, of the 90’s!”

“Alright Logan, lets get you back to our room.” Josh said as he began pulling Logan over towards where their room was. “Say goodnight to the Backstreet Boys.”

“Goodnight to the Backstreet Boys!” Logan shouted out, laughing when Josh told him to be quiet once again. “Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol…” he sang out as Josh opened their hotel door and held it open for him to walk in.

“Make sure he settles down, meanwhile I’ll make sure the guys will be okay.” Darren muttered to Gabriella, who simply nodded and was off to do what he instructed.

Darren stared at the drunkest member of the group, who seemed to have fallen asleep between AJ and Nick while Howie struggled with trying to find the hotel room key in Brian’s back pockets. When he finally found the key, he held it up triumphantly before he slid the card through the opening, unlocking Brian’s door.

“Will you guys be okay?” Darren asked as he watched, “Will you guys need my assistance with anything?”

Howie shook his head as he held the door wide open for AJ and Nick to carry Brian in, “No, we’ll be okay. If anything, we’ll just give you guys a holler. Thanks again, so much and we’ll see you tomorrow morning!”

“See you tomorrow.” Darren nodded as he turned to make his way back to his room.

Just as they all disappeared into their respective rooms, they failed to notice the fact that a door to a room on their level was cracked; with vibrant yellow eyes peering out through the cracked door at the group. It smiled evilly as the darkness of the room shrouded the being in mystery.

“Rise and shine…….… wakey wakey……………. c’mon, wake up drunken monkey!”

He cracked his eyes open and was greeted by darkness; thank god. As his eyes glazed over to where he heard the voice, he saw a silhouette of someone beside him.

“Good morning sleeping beauty!” Josh whispered.

Logan pushed himself up from the bed slowly, his hands immediately going to his pounding head, “Ugh… what happened last night?”

Josh snickered, “Seems like you had a little too much fun with Jack and Jim last night!”

He groaned, “Uggh, please don’t mention those names!! I can’t get the smell or taste outta my mind!”

“Maybe you’ll think twice the next time you try to drink everyone and their mom’s under the table. C’mon, daddy Darren wants us all up and ready. He and Gabriella are already downstairs, getting an early start on the free continental breakfast.”

Logan began to massage his temples, trying desperately to ward away the massive migraine he was plagued with, “What time is it?”

“Uh… 5:28.”

“5:28?!?!” he exclaimed, realizing that he barely had two hours of sleep… well, they all did. “What time are we supposed to be down there?”

“6:00 sharp.”

Sighing heavily, he begrudgingly tried to get up from the bed, “I swear, just kill me now! This hangover is sooo not the business.”

Josh chuckled and sighed at the sight of his hungover friend. “You know, I really should let you go through this day in this condition, maybe then you’d learn a lesson about what happens when you have too much Jack and Jim…”

“Please….” Logan begged earnestly, “no names!”

“But, daddy Darren said to help you so you can be alert and ready for our training.” Josh finished as he placed his hands on Darren’s head and closed his eyes. A faint green glow illuminated the dark room for a few seconds, and he removed his hands when the room darkened once more. “There. Better?”

Logan’s eyes suddenly became wide, more alert. He was no longer stricken with the immense headache the hangover had left him with; no longer felt nauseated or tired. “Oh god, thank you dude!” he was able to get up from the bed just fine this time.

Josh smiled as he stood up, “You’re welcome. Get yourself ready and meet us downstairs… all the good pastries are probably gone now.”

As Logan disappeared into the bathroom to start getting ready, Josh stepped out of his room and into the hallway, seeing Brian coming out of his room. “Hey Bri!” he called out, catching his attention.

Brian slightly turned to see Josh, “Hey Josh!” he greeted as he juggled his cup of coffee in one hand and used his other hand to close the door to his hotel room. “Sleep well? I’m sorry you all didn’t get much of it…”

Josh gave him an incredulous look, “I should be asking YOU that. I slept just fine, but you… how are you…”

Brian smiled and shrugged, “You’ll get used to it. You can tell I’ve become too accustomed to this lifestyle.”

Josh nodded, he had a point. “Where you on your way to?” he asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

“I had ran downstairs to get myself some coffee before I came back up here to round up the other guys. After that, we’re gonna head down to get ourselves some breakfast.”

“You guys… don’t do room service?” Josh drawled out slowly, hoping his question didn’t come off as rude… he was genuinely curious.

“Although we’ve become accustomed with this lifestyle, we don’t exactly tend to let it BE our lives, you know? Sure, we get comfortable with the perks of being an international celebrity from time to time, but you always gotta humble yourself and keep one foot on the ground while your head’s in the clouds.” Brian replied with a warm smile. “If not, and you become too wrapped up in the luxuries and all the selfish rewards… well, you ain’t living for no one but yourself, you’ll truly have nothing and no one. It’s true when they say… money can’t buy you happiness.”

Josh could only nod, taking in all that Brian was telling him. His wisdom was profound, which definitely reminded him a lot of Darren. “That’s amazing.”

Before anything else was said, a hotel door flew open, revealing Nick who casually walked out, stretching his arms. “Good morning starshine, the earth says hellllooooooo.” he exclaimed as Johnny Depp did in his movie “Charlie & The Chocolate Factory”.

“If you ever wanna get this guy outta bed, there’s one word and one word only that’ll do the trick.” Brian spoke softly to Josh.

He shot him a look, “Yeah? And what is that.”

“Food.”

“Did someone say food?” Nick asked excitedly.

Brian rolled his eyes, “See?”

Only then Nick caught on to the joke that was said about him, “For your information BRIAN, you know good and well that I only eat healthy food now! I’m all about the egg whites and wheat toast baby!”

Brian groaned as he walked away, heading over to AJ’s room next, “Ooh gosh, here we go!”

Just as Josh turned to walk away, he found himself doing a double take at seeing a woman, who emerged from Nick’s room. “Oh baby, this is one of our newest security guards, Josh.” Nick introduced as he brought the woman over towards him, “Josh, this is my girlfriend, Lauren.”

Josh stared at the woman, mesmerized by her eyes. The way he stared at her wasn’t out of lust or like, but because her light colored eyes were eerily reminiscent of Tracy. Before him wasn’t Nick’s girlfriend Lauren… in that moment, he saw his beloved Tracy.

Lauren smiled, which caused Josh’s heart to flutter. Same exact smile. “Nice to meet you Josh.” she said as she reached out her and leaned in for a kiss.

Breaking himself out of his trance, Josh accepted her hand and shook it, leaning in to give her a ‘cheek kiss’. When he pulled back, he no longer saw Tracy, but actually Lauren. “Nice to meet you too.”

“I want it thaaaaaat waaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!” AJ belted out as he walked over towards them from his room, breaking Josh out of the awkward moment. “Man, that was great.” AJ laughed.

Brian shook his head as he walked over with Howie, “Don’t blame a man for having a good time.”

“Ooooh no Rok. You’re like the coolest ever when you’re drunk, I fucking love it, but I feel bad when you are!” AJ explained as they all made their way towards the elevator. “The fans have A LOT more to look forward to with this year’s cruise!”

“Cruise?” Josh asked as they loaded into the elevator cab.

“Last year we hosted our first ever BSB cruise, allowing fans to get as close and intimate to us as possible.” Howie explained, “We planned a lot of fun themed events and… it was crazy, it was great!”

“The turnout went so well, we decided to do it again this year.” Brian added.

Josh nodded, wondering if they’d be invited out to work with them on the cruise. Being away from land and out on the open sea would make them vulnerable, but… he figured he’d share that information with Darren and from there let him make the call.

Once the elevator doors slid open, Nick and Lauren were the first to exit. “Nick, save some doughnuts for the rest of us!” Brian joked, causing Nick to flip him off.

Josh laughed at their antics as he wandered over towards where he saw Darren and Gabriella sitting. “Hey guys.” he greeted as he sat down next to Darren.

Gabriella cocked an eyebrow, a small smirk on her face, “You’re quite chipper this morning. Did you not relieve Logan of his hangover?”

“As much as I wanted to let him suffer, I did what was asked. He should be coming down here in a bit.”

Darren nodded as he took a sip of his second cup of hot, fresh brew. “What about you? You feeling better today?”

Josh nodded, his eyes cast down on the table. “Yeah, I do. Sorry, I was just in a funky mood last night.”

“There’s no need to apologize,” Darren said as he shook his head, “we were just worried is all.”

Josh tried to give a warm smile, to let them know that he’d be okay, but he wasn’t convincing anyone. In that moment of silence that had befallen them, they looked up to see Howie, AJ and a young woman approaching them, plates in hand.

“Hey you two!” Howie addressed both Darren and Gabriella, “Mind if I sit here and join you guys?”

“Please, do!” Gabriella replied as she pulled back the chair that was positioned next to her, allowing Howie to seat himself next to her.

“Hey, just wanted to introduce you guys to my fiancée.” AJ said as he grabbed Rochelle’s plate of food so that she could shake their hands. “Rochelle, this is Josh, Darren and Gabriella. Guys, this is my fiancée, Rochelle.”

“Nice to meet you all.” Rochelle responded with a smile, shaking each one of their hands.

“Likewise.” Darren said with a smirk as he shook her hand.

“Well, just wanted to come over and introduce her to ya’ll, we’ll see you guys around!”

Gabriella watched as the couple walked away, seating themselves at a table that wasn’t very far from them. “They’re a beautiful couple.” she looked back at Howie, Darren and Josh. “I’ll tell you this much, they’re gonna have a beautiful baby!”

Howie nodded in agreement, “I always tell AJ that he’s gonna make a great dad!” he stated as he began to slather some cream cheese on his baked slice of bagel.

“Mhmm. Do you have any kids yourself Howie?”

Howie simply smiled as he pulled his phone out from his back pocket. He pushed a button, bringing it to his home screen, which was a picture of his wife and son. “This is my wife Leigh, and that’s my son James.”

Gabriella grabbed his phone and stared at the picture, “Oooh my, he’s just adorable! He’s a perfect mix of you and your wife.”

“Thank you. Many people say that he looks just like his mom while he sleeps like his daddy.” Howie joked before he took a bite of his bagel.

Gabriella laughed, placing his phone down beside him, “You have a very beautiful family Howie.”

“Thank you.” Howie managed to say as he swallowed down his food. “What about you? Are you married with children?”

Gabriella sighed, “Unfortunately no. I’ve been married once, which didn’t end to well, and…” she paused, her memories rendering her silent in that moment. Her hand slowly crept up to her stomach, as if she could still feel it’s kicks. “No… no kids.”

“I’m sorry about your marriage.” Howie muttered, feeling bad that he had asked that question.

Gabriella forced a smile and shook her head, “No, it’s completely fine. They say talking about it will continue to help me move on from it all.”

Howie simply nodded, truly feeling bad for bringing obvious painful memories. “Well, that man was a damn fool to let you go, because you are a beautiful woman with a great heart… and I know the man that finds you will be the luckiest man in the world.

He wouldn’t let me go… she thought bitterly. She quickly tried to rid herself of the past that was trying to come back to haunt her. “Thank you Howie, that’s very nice of you to say.” she replied sweetly.

Howie smiled and winked, “I’m only speaking the truth sweetie.”

As silence descended upon the group, with Howie finishing his breakfast and Josh excusing himself from the table to make himself a plate of food, Gabriella found herself entering the negative thoughts once more. Her eyes darkened as she thought of the man she had vowed to love till death do them part. She loved him even when he brought death to her that would do them part, but there was no love from him in return. The only thing he sought from it all was pleasure, money and power.

Darren looked worriedly over at Gabriella, knowing she was battling with thoughts from Howie’s question. Without thinking, he reached his hand over the table to grasp hers, which were wrung tightly together. Upon feeling the contact, Gabriella broke herself out of her negative trance and looked up at Darren, who was holding on to her tightly wrought hands, urging her to let go. When he gave a warm smile, she did the same in return, being reminded that she was safe with Darren around.

“What’s for breakfast?” they heard Logan ask as he walked up and took the seat Josh left vacant.

“Waffles, bagels, scrambled eggs, toast, fruits…” Howie replied, holding up his banana for emphasis. “How you feeling? You sure did put those drinks away last night!”

Logan beamed brightly, “I feel like a million bucks!” He was so glad that Josh had healed him and that he wasn’t sitting there before them feeling like he had when he woke up.

Howie cocked an eyebrow, “Wow. I’d love to know what you do to get rid of hangovers.”

Logan chuckled, “Maybe one day I shall share the secret with you.”

Josh walked back up to the group, two plates in hand; one topped with waffles, and the other filled with scrambled eggs, sausage and a slice of toast. “I wake the guy up, and now he takes my seat?”

“Here Josh, you can sit here.” Howie said as he grabbed his empty plate and stood up. “I’m done anyway and gonna talk to the others for a bit. I’ll see you guys later.” and with that, he walked away from them.

Josh took the now vacant seat, “Man, this hotel’s continental breakfast is good! Truly a five star hotel with five star food!”

Logan shot his hand out and snatched a sausage from Josh’s plate, to which Josh glared at him in return. “I love you!” is all Logan said as he ate the stolen sausage.

Josh rolled his eyes and he stabbed his fork into the fluffy pieces of scrambled eggs. “I swear, I should’ve left you to deal with the hangover.” he cracked in a light tone.

“Good morning guys, and the lovely lady!”

The four of them looked up to find Jen walking over towards them, “Good morning!” they chorused their reply.

“I just wanted to introduce you to a few people that you’ll also be working with on the security staff.” they looked behind her to find a group of men walking up towards them. “Of course, you all know Q, then there’s Buddy, Vinny, Mac or also known as the Mac Daddy, Philip, and our first ever set of twin security guards, Dominic and Damien.”

As the group did their introductions, Darren couldn’t help than to notice that something felt extremely off in that moment. He was sure it was his guardian, Michael, trying to tell him something, but he couldn’t get a definite lock on what it was.

“So, you guys here are Q’s friends, huh?” Mac asked no one in particular.

Q quipped in with a nod, “Yup… I can’t exactly remember how we know each other, but we do!”

Logan and Josh couldn’t help than to snicker at the obvious results of Gabriella’s persuasive work. Meanwhile, Darren remained wary of what was going on around them. He couldn’t deny the definite presence that seemed to be in close proximity, but he couldn’t track down who or what had him feeling that way. When he looked at their new colleagues, he felt nothing negative, but all around them was a different story… he picked up on a malevolent energy, as if it had just entered the room they were in, but couldn’t track it down.

“Hey, you alive in there?”

Darren snapped out of his thoughts and found himself staring at one of the twins, Dominic, who was waving his hand back and forth in front of his face, a small smirked curved his lips. “You guys ready to learn the ropes?”

Darren simply nodded, “Sorry, yeah.”

As he began to follow the group of security guards out, he couldn’t help than to look back at the boys, who were still eating and socializing. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake the feeling of the malicious presence that definitely seemed to be there, and his imminent thoughts. He could only hope that nothing would happen while they are gone.

“So, how was today?”

Darren turned to find Dominic walking up behind him. He found himself catching a water bottle Dominic lightly chucked to him. “Thanks.” he muttered as he twisted the cap off and took a long swig of the cold water. He was standing outside of Schottenstein Center, deciding to catch a fresh breath of air and collect his thoughts. They just got done with the run through of their tasks and slight training and would be set to go to work tonight.

“Information overload, but… I think we can manage.”

Dominic smirked as he stood beside him, “I know what you mean. I remember when I first started working with the boys. They’re a crazy bunch, I’ve come to love them like they’re brothers.”

“How exactly did you and your brother get this job?” Darren questioned. He needed to get to know everyone they’d be working with and whoever else would be around the boys.

Dominic shrugged, “I guess you could say our family. Some of the men from my family have worked security for them over the many years… and our uncle, who was working for them a few years ago, got word in about us, and the next thing you know… here we are.”

A look of intrigue crossed Darren’s features as Dominic simply nodded, “Yeah… Derrick, or Big D as they called him. My brother and I have been working with these guys for the past three years, and… we’re looking to stick with them, till the very end.”

Darren’s eyes were cast to the ground as he listened to Dominic’s story. His eyes glazed up as he tried to read into the man; it was an ability he had, passed down from Michael. He was practically able to sniff out demons, which was how he was able to do that with the boy Shaun had a run in with in the alley. Without them knowing it, he could easily detect demons by their malignant auras that they radiated, and would be able to strike when the time was right. When it came to Dominic, he thankfully didn’t pick up anything negative. One down… and so many more to go.

“What about you?” Dominic questioned, breaking him out of his thoughts. “What’s your story?”

“I uh…” Darren froze, as his life seemed to play right before his very eyes. “I was a youth minister many years ago. From there, I became a motivational speaker, that toured around to different states, advocating anti-bully, anti-suicide, anti-abuse, anti-abortion… basically advocating life and love. After that…” he smiled at recalling the day he was blessed by St. Michael. “I felt this calling to protect people, and it led me to this field.”

An impressive look flashed across Dominic’s face, “Wow! That’s truly amazing man, good for you!” silence came between them, as Dominic tried to think of a way to ask his question, without coming across rude. “If, you don’t mind me asking… why did you stop with motivational speaking?” when he noticed a slight look of shock and sadness fill his eyes, he quickly tried to correct his statement, “I-It’s just that you look like you were a great motivational person that changed and impacted a lot of lives…”

Darren remained silent, thinking of how he’d answer that question. He hadn’t shared his past with anyone… the only person that really knew his story was Gabriella, not even Josh and Logan knew! But, he figured this could help him cope, it’s not like he knew the man, or the man knew him. “I, uh… I was so busy in helping everyone else with their problems that I couldn’t even help my own brother.” he fell silent for a while, closing his eyes. “I had many cases I’ve dealt with, but the biggest was suicide. Here I was, teaching others what to look out for with a person who’s suicidal, and I couldn’t even see the signs in my own brother.”

Dominic frowned, his face twisting into sadness and sympathy, “I’m sorry man…”

“He called me…” Darren continued, pushing through his emotional pain. “He called me to say his final goodbyes. Being the person I was, I was sure I could talk him out of it… I’ve done it before, I could surely do it with my own brother. But no. Not this time. No matter how much I cried, and begged, and pleaded… my words fell on nothing but deaf ears.” he struggled to will his tears away. “His last words to me was… ‘this isn’t my life to live… perhaps now I will find the true meaning of life.’ and with that…” he paused and closed his eyes, hearing the nothing but the dial tone play in his mind, “he hung up.”

“I….. I’m so sorry Darren.” Dominic sighed heavily.

Darren shook his head, “You have nothing to apologize for… you weren’t the one that pulled the trigger.” he could hear Dominic suck a breath in upon hearing his words, realizing that Darren’s brother had shot and killed himself. “But… after that, I couldn’t do it anymore. I left behind my passion.”

Before Dominic could apologize once more, the sound of someone walking towards them kept him silent. He turned around to find his brother approaching them.

“Hey guys.” Damien greeted as he walked up beside them, “We have a lot time open to ourselves before the sound check and show… Mac wants to know if you guys want to pound a few beers in a bit?”

Dominic glanced over at Darren, trying to read him, waiting for an answer. “You guys go ahead…” Darren finally spoke out in a solemn voice, staring straight forward. “Something tells me I’m gonna need a lot of sleep in preparation for tonight.” he tried to joke dryly.

Damien and Dominic simply nodded before the two walked away, leaving the bigger man alone with his thoughts. “See you later on man.”

Darren continued to stare straight forward, allowing his mind to completely take him over and enter him into a state of oblivion. As his eyes drifted closed, images of him speeding to his parents’ house where his brother still resided. He remembered hyperventilating, willing the tears not to spew forth from his wide eyes as he further pressed his foot onto the pedal, not caring that the cars he sped past were honking at him. “Please be okay.” was the mantra he chanted over and over as he finally pulled into the driveway.

He quickly threw the car into park, not even bothering to shut it off and take his keys out of the ignition. He darted out of his running car and ran up the front porch, grasping the doorknob and shoving the door open. “DONNIE!!” he shouted as he ran through his parents seemingly empty home. The deafening silence was loud, and he honestly feared what he would stumble across; he only prayed that he got here in time to stop him.

He knew his brother had it all planned out… their parents were at work, leaving him to be alone while he was away conducting a seminar. He ran into Donnie’s room first, thankfully finding it to be empty. He then trudged his way to his parents room, finding it to be empty as well. He ran downstairs into their basement, hoping he wouldn’t find him there; he released a breath he didn’t even know he was holding when he saw no one in there.

As he made his way back up the stairs, he was drawing a blank on where else he could look. “Donnie?” he tentatively called out again, maybe he hadn’t heard him the first time and didn’t know he was looking for him. Just as he was going to make his way towards the back sliding door to look out in the backyard, the bathroom off to the right of him caught his attention and made him do a double-take; the door was slightly ajar and the light was off. Slowly, he made his way over towards the bathroom, his heart pounding with every step he took.

“Donnie?” he called out once more, hoping he would hear a reply, to which nothing but silence responded his hopeful plea. His hands were trembling as he slowly reached out towards the door and pushed it open. A gasp tumbled from his lips as he felt his legs give out, causing him to crumble to the ground and scramble back a bit. In the tub, was his now dead brother. He was laying in the tub, which was partially filled up with water, his head lolled to the side with a distinctive hole that stood out in his left temple.

The flesh of his face was sagging, apparent signs that the immediate impact of the bullet to his head instantly drained him of his blood. His eyes were half lidded as blood seemed to seep from every orifices of his body. His left hand dangled outside of the tub, and right below it on the ground laid a simple handgun, one their father was licensed to carry. Thick, crimson blood and brain matter were splattered over the tub walls, while pieces drifted on the still water, tingeing it to be a sea of blood.

No matter how much he wanted to gag as he felt vile rise up from the pit of his stomach, he quickly crawled over towards his deceased brother, still remaining hopeful, begging to God that he wouldn’t be dead. He reached into the tub and grabbed at his brother, struggling to haul his limp, lifeless body out of the frigid cold water. Though his skin was icy to the touch, he was convinced it was because of the laying in the cold bath water. Unable to think rationally, he quickly scooped up the pieces of blown brain matter that floated around in the tub and placed it to the side of his brother’s gaping temple, as if he could fix his broken brother.

“You’ll be okay… you’ll be okay… I’m here Donnie.” was what he chanted as he desperately tried to put his brother back together again, but to no avail. Head lolled back, Darren slightly rose his brother’s flaccid neck up, catching a glimpse of his brother’s face. His mouth was slacked and his lips were tinged blue, through the slits of his lids, he could see that his eyes were rolled up back into his head. Darren quickly bit down on his quivering bottom lip as he reached his hand out to touch his brother’s cold, pale face.

“Donnie?” he whispered out, wishing that it was a sick joke and that he would get up and respond to him. But again, silence was the one to answer. He began to stroke his cheek, leaving a streak of blood to run across his slacked face. As his fingers inched slowly to Donnie’s neck, he began to sob when he felt no pulse… a final admission of his brother’s death; he was broken, beyond repair.

“How long have you been standing out here by yourself?”

Darren immediately snapped out his apparent flashback, turning around to find Gabriella walking up towards him. He quickly turned away from her when he felt tracks of hot tears trickling down his face; he didn’t even know he had been crying. He furiously wiped at his eyes, trying to get rid of the emotional breakdown evidence. “We, uh… we need to start getting to know these guys better.”

Gabriella halted at his sudden statement, “I think we’re all trying here Darren. It just makes this hard because it’s only the second day and they’re all so… busy.”

“We need to hurry,” Darren continued, as if he didn’t hear Gabriella’s reasoning, “I feel like something bad is going to happen, and real soon.”

Before Gabriella could say another word, Darren turned and walked back into the arena, leaving her to stand out there by herself. Gabriella watched as he walked away, staring at the back of his head and wishing she could read his mind, but he blocked her from doing just that. She sighed, knowing she couldn’t force herself into someone’s mind… she wish she knew what was going on with him.

~*~*~*~

“Whoooo-hoooooo, are you guys ready?!?” Nick exclaimed in excitement as he jumped up and down, pumping the adrenaline through his body.

The nine band members were all dressed in their dark opening number wardrobe, and they were all standing backstage, getting ready to say a prayer before they went on with the show. “B-rok, could you lead us in prayer?” NKOTB member, Donnie Wahlberg had asked.

Brian simply nodded as they all gathered into a huge circle, grabbing hands with one another. Brian bowed his head down, as the rest followed suit, “Father God, we thank you for gathering us all here tonight to use the talents You have blessed us all with to entertain our fellow brothers and sisters, Your children Father God. We ask that you may be with each and every one of us as we set out to do Your will and that we may accomplish the task at hand. May You be ever so present in our voices, in our guardianship, in our leadership, in our tireless work and effort to making this show possible. We ask that you not only bless the entertainers, but everyone apart of this team… the fans, our families and loved ones, management, road crew, stage crew, stylists, makeup artists, and of course our security staff, especially the four new members we gained into our family.” he looked over towards Darren and smiled, “Thank You Father God for Your countless blessings You have bestowed upon all our lives, and may we come to glorify Your name in all that we do. We offer up this performance to You Lord.”

After a light squeeze, they all had let go of each other’s hands and proceeded with patting each other on the back, wishing one another good luck with whatever role they had on this tour. Donnie then stuck his hand in the middle of the once formed group, waiting for the others to do the same. Once everyone had held their hands out, one on top of the other, they cheered out, “N-K-O-T-B-S-B!!!” and with that, they all dispersed into their respective positions.

Darren and Logan were positioned to be down in front of the stage, while Gabriella and Josh were positioned on the side wings of the stage. As Darren walked out with Logan to the front of the stage, he was taken aback at how much people had packed the once empty arena just to see these nine band members.

Logan whistled and grasped Darren’s shoulders as he walked behind him, “We sure have our work cut out for us!” he shouted over the blaring music, to which Darren simply nodded. The energy was insane, and there was no way he could pinpoint accurately a negative energy within the arena, there was just too much going on. He figured, hopefully, with a packed house like this, nothing would be attempted; then again, Lucifier was conniving and tricky, you never knew when he and his demons would strike.

Once they were spaced out far enough from each other, Darren glanced over towards Logan and signaled him to do what was planned. Logan nodded as he took out a Bluetooth earpiece and placed it in his ear; he looked around to find Gabriella and Josh doing the same. He turned the power on to his earpiece; the four of them decided this would be their way of communicating with one another. “Logan, checking in.”

“Read you loud and clear.” Gabriella replied as walked around a bit in her area, studying her surroundings and the people near her.

“Reporting for duty.” Josh quipped soon after.

“Alright you guys, we all need to be on full alert. This is going to be quite a challenge, but one we will overcome.” Darren spoke in an authority. “It’s hard for me to get any kind of reading in this place, so we’ll just have to remain vigilant and rely on our intuition.”

Each of them nodded just as the dim lights faded to complete blackness, causing the sea of fans to erupt in piercing screams. They watched as a little montage of the fused groups played out, introducing them to their favorite individual artist. Soon after, the band slowly sauntered out from the middle of the stage, slowly making their way out towards the catwalk as they sang a mashup of two of the group’s songs.

“If you came here by yourself tonight, cause he wouldn’t pick up the phone, he was supposed to bring you here tonight, couldn’t find him so you came alone…” they heard Josh sing along with the band, into the earpiece.

Darren shook his head and rolled his eyes, opting not to get on his case. As his eyes continued to scan the screaming fans that were standing before him, desperately reaching out towards their idols, he was immediately able to pick up on an energy that seemed quite… spiteful. His eyes widened upon his findings, he now just had to locate whom he was getting this feeling from.

“I’ve got something guys.” he spoke out into the earpiece.

Josh immediately stopped singing, “What you got bro?”

“I was finally able to pick up on an energy… it’s quite vicious, I’m just trying to locate the source.” as he continue to gaze around, his attention was drawn towards a young girl was glaring in the direction of the stage. “Bingo! Eighth row, two ’o clock.”

Simultaneously, they all turned their attention to where Darren had directed them. “Gabi, can you confirm or refute my reading?”

Gabriella simply nodded as she allowed herself to enter the mind of the young girl that seemed to be radiating quite a ferocious aura. Her brows quickly knitted in confusion as she definitely picked up on malicious thoughts, but… it wasn’t directed towards any of the band members.

She chuckled, “She definitely wants to hurt someone alright… but, none of our guys. If you take a closer look, you’ll notice that she’s focusing her glare towards the group of girls two rows ahead of her… standing and obstructing her view of the guys.”

Sure enough, when they all studied the young irate fan a little closer, they were able to clearly see what Gabriella was referring to. “You picked up a jealous fan!” Josh laughed, causing snickers to rise up from him and Logan.

Darren chuckled himself as he shook his head, “Yeah, I’d like to see you guys do what I do. It ain’t easy, especially here.”

Gabriella nodded in a agreement, “We can’t be too cautious here guys, so it’s good that we’re all remaining alert and weary of everything that’s going on around us, even if it’s a simple desirous fan. Trickery is a hell of a mind game.”

Upon hearing Gabriella’s reminder, they all fell and remained quiet, knowing good and well that she was right. For all they knew, this jealous fan could very well turn out to be a demon… just using one of his many manipulative tricks to deceive them all.

“Cheers! To a job well done the first night!” Q stated as he held up a tall, wide glass of cold beer.

The rest of the security staff rose the glasses of their respective drinks as well, shouting “Cheers!” before they placed their mugs to their lips, taking a long swig of the amber liquid. It was Philip’s idea of gathering the bodyguards and going out to the nearest bar to celebrate the four newest member’s first night of the job.

“So, do you guys think you can handle many more nights like this?” Vinny asked as he guzzled down more of his beer. “It’ll only get crazier with each venue, let me tell you that!”

Darren smiled and nodded, knowing what the man said to be right, but in their case, it’ll continue to get far more crazier than that, and a much more harder job at hand. “We’re ready for whatever comes our way. I believe in my crew.”

“We believe in OUR crew!” Q corrected as he walked up and linked an arm around Darren and Gabriella’s shoulders. “Drinks all around! We’re putting it on AJ’s tab!!”

As the burly men began to cheer, Logan laughed, “Man… is this what they do after every show? Or before for that matter? I don’t remember this being apart of the job description, but I love it!”

Josh slapped a hearty pat down upon Logan’s shoulder, “Just, whatever you do, don’t let yourself get like how you were last night… I will leave you with a hangover this time around.” he joked with a wink.

Logan seemed to perk up on his statement, “I have an idea!”

The color from Josh’s face seemed to drain as he found himself staring at Logan’s mischievous features. “Ooooh no Lo, no ideas coming from you… the last time you had an idea, I ha-”

“DRINKING GAME!!!” Logan exclaimed as he shot up from where he sat, punching his fists into the air. That awarded him a horrid, stunned look from the younger man.

Though, Logan’s words of an apparent challenge seemed to intrigue the bigger men. “What game would that be?”

He quickly brought his hands down, he hadn’t thought that far. “Simple game really…” he replied coolly with a shrug, “who can drink the most beer. The first one to pass out, loses.”

The group remained quiet for a while, as if contemplating the challenge over. “You veterans select your drinker, and us newbies will select our drinker, to help prove ourselves!” Logan added.

That seemed to intrigue the men even further, the fact that this would not only be a simple challenge, but a challenge that would be held between the veterans and the new guys. This could be fun. “Alright! We bite!” Buddy agreed for the group as he stood up. “Our drinker that we shall send forth is a no brainer… we choose Big Mac!!”

“Alright, alright…” Logan said with a nod before he was pulled down roughly by a fuming Josh.

“What in the hell are you doing?!” Josh seethed in a whisper. “Can we not try to make a scene with us?”

“How are we gonna make a scene?” Logan countered.

“Oh, I don’t know… by getting drunk off your ass and possibly lose control of your powers! What if we find ourselves in some trouble, what good would you be?!”

“You’re right… but this is such an easy and entertaining way to earn a quick buck and gain their respect… hope you’re ready to drink up baby boy.” Logan teased with a wink before he straightened himself up and faced their fellow colleagues, “We choose Josh!”

Josh’s eyes literally bulged out of his head upon hearing Logan volunTELL him. His selection caused an uproar from the hearty men, “Josh barely has any meat on him! Why don’t you give us a fair challenger, like you Logan, or Darren!” Buddy said jokingly.

Hearing that proved to be fighting words for Josh. Slamming his hands down on the table, he quickly shot up from his seat and pointed accusingly at Buddy, “I’d drink both you AND Big Mac under the table, any time, anywhere, any place!”

“WHOOOOOOOA!!!!” the other men jeered as they looked at each other, laughing. “So maybe we do have ourselves a worthy opponent!” Buddy laughed, winking to let them know that it was all in light fun, “Would you like to select another partner to go into battle with you?”

“No… just me, against you two.” Josh replied sternly, his arms folded across his chest.

Logan grasped Josh’s shoulders and began to shake him a bit in excitement as he jumped around behind him, “You heard the man! You two against him! Lets do this!”

They all pushed their chairs back while they began to set their tables up for the challengers to seat at. “Should we be worried about this?” Gabriella questioned Darren, seeking his leadership.

To her surprise though, he simply shrugged, “I don’t know whether I want to stop this or let it be entertainment.” he replied honestly, “As long as Logan’s not the contender, I think we’ll be okay.”

Buddy and Mac sat down in their appointed seats while Josh sat down across from them, never breaking his intent gaze on them. “Can we get a round of beers here?!” Logan rounded up a hostess and approached the table. “Okay fellas, here’s the rules… no puking, no sandbagging, no passing off your beer for your partner to finish…” he eyed his friends, “Josh, in your case you have no one to hand it off to. The first one to puke or pass out loses.”

Logan took a step back to allow the two female hostess to place three large mugs down on the table. While Buddy and Mac busied themselves in looking over the attracting women, Josh refused to break his stare on them… they had no clue what they were in for. “Taking bets!” Logan exclaimed as he began collecting money from whoever wanted to throw in.

Undoubtedly, the men placed their bets on Buddy and Mac, while only Logan, Darren and Gabriella placed their bets on Josh. A light bulb had gone off in Darren’s head, seeing this to be an opportunity to get their group closer to what they needed to do. “If you guys win, not only will you all get the money, but we’ll quit.”

Q’s eyes widened, “Whoa, whoa, whoa… it’s really not that serious…”

Josh and Logan shot a incredulous look over at Darren, “Yeah, it’s really not that serious bro!”

Darren held his hands up, urging them to calm down, “I know how it is to just have some newbies waltz in to the family… so if you win, we’re gone.”

“What are you doing?!” Gabriella whispered as she tried to pull him back.

Darren simply chuckled; he knew there was no way they’d lose, which is why he was adding to the bet. “Now… if WE win… you guys will let us be the boys’ individual bodyguards. What do you guys say?”

The older security guards huddled together to discuss their decision. “You’re on!” Vinny shouted in excitement.

As they all settled around the three challengers awaiting for the game to begin, Logan held his hand up above the three, “On the count of three, you will down your beer. You may take a breather if you need to, it’s not about how fast you can drink… it’s about who can drink the most and be the last one standing. Are you ready?!” when he received nods from the three, he began to countdown, “Three… two… one, DRINK!!”

Immediately, Buddy and Mac shot out for their mugs, grabbing it and began chugging it down. Josh slowly grabbed his glass and began drinking his beer as well; though it seemed as if he were drinking it slow, he seemed to be gulping down the liquid in large quantities. As if in unison, they all slammed their glasses down, awaiting for the next round.

“Wow, I’m impressed… looks like the boy knows how to put his beer away after all!” Buddy lightly teased, which earned him a sly smirk from Josh.

“Keep them coming!” Mac shouted with a belch.

That had became the routine between them; they’d down their beer, tease each other a little bit and demand the next glass. So far, they were five beers in. “This is breakfast, lunch and dinner for me!” Buddy pointed out.

Josh simply chuckled, he was feeling NO affects whatsoever of the alcohol, but he tried to keep a straight face. “Okay, we’ll see.”

Seven beers in and you could definitely tell the beer was beginning to affect the bigger men. Mac’s eyes were glazed over while Buddy seemed to be swaying from side to side a bit in his chair. The smirk never left Josh’s face as he stared at the condition his two contenders were in.

After a long moment of silence, Mac was the first one to back out. “I-I-I-I-I’m done…” he stuttered as he tried to get up from his chair. Philip and Vince immediately shot their arms out to catch and steady his wobbly form. “Yer on your own there Buddy…” he broke out laughing at his own pun, “WIN IT FOR THE BOYS!!!”

Buddy reached out blindly, trying to grab for his friend and make him sit back down, “N-n-no dude, we gatta finish this…”

“Guess it’s just you and me now Buddy.” Josh remarked coyly as he lined up his seven empty glasses.

Buddy stared long and hard at his seemingly fine opponent before shouting, “ANOTHER ROUND!!!”

“Holy shit!” the rest of the staff commented as they began to talk amongst themselves of how they couldn’t believe that they would be going on their eighth round of beer. They were certain Buddy wouldn’t last through it, and were completely amazed with how Josh didn’t seem to be drunk at all.

As the hostess placed the two glasses of beer down before the men, Josh chuckled when he saw that Buddy’s heavy eyes were starting to cross. “You can back out now bro…” Josh teased as he grabbed his mug sipped at the froth at the brim.

Not one to be defeated, Buddy angrily snatched the mug and forced himself to chug down his last mug of beer. “BUD-DY, BUD-DY, BUD-DY, BUD-DY!!” his friends cheered him on, but their cheers slowly died down as they watched him sway dangerously back and forth. With the mug still placed at his mouth, their eyes widened as they watched a river of beer run from the glass down his chin and chest. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head while the glass fell from his hands.

The group remained silent as they stared at Buddy’s passed out form, and then up at Josh in disbelief. “I told him to back out…” Josh muttered as he reached over and grabbed the filled glass that was meant for Mac. Finishing it off in a gulp, he slammed the glass down on the table and asked, “Anyone else want to play?”

“Holy shit bro!” Vinny cried out as he walked over towards Buddy’s slumped form, looking him over. “How in the hell…”

Josh smirked and shrugged, “Double or nothing anyone?”

Vinny quickly shook his head, “Fuck that! We’re good dude!” he replied, causing the others to laugh.

Josh rose from his seat and walked over towards Buddy, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Good game dude.” he said as his eyes began to glow green a little bit, but no one had noticed. He was actually healing Buddy so that he wouldn’t be left to suffer with a hangover the next day.

Next, he walked over to where Mac, who was seated in between Damien and Dominic, leaning on the twins for support. He bent down in front of him as he was slowly slipping in and out of consciousness. “You good bro?” Josh asked as his eyes turned green again, reaching out to grasp his shoulders and make him focus on him.

Eyes half lidded, Mac slowly rose his head to acknowledge him, “Huh?”

Josh simply laughed and stood up from his crouched position. “You’ll be okay.” he assured as he began to pat his back.

Dominick chuckled as he rose from where he sat, “Hey Josh, could you do me a favor and stay on this side of him real quick? I’m gonna step out for a smoke.”

“Oh sure, no problem.” Josh nodded as he took Dominick’s now vacant seat and immediately busied himself into a conversation with Damien.

Dominick made his way out of the bar, walking out the back exit to smoke his cigarette. He stepped out into the dimly lit alleyway, looking around to find nothing but bums wandering around, going through trash cans that lined the walls. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his pack of cigarettes and shook a stick out, placing it to his mouth. Before he could flick his lighter, commotion off in the distance caused him to freeze in the middle of his actions.

Glancing off to where the homeless were wandering around, he saw a creature with large bat-like wings grabbing one of the innocent homeless men who was desperately trying to run away from it. The rest of the bums quickly scattered away, scared of the creature that was pursuing them.

“No, please!! Don’t hurt me!!” the older sounding man begged as the creature shoved him hard to the alley ground.

“Not to worry,” the creature hissed as he bent down towards the fallen man, “This will be quick and painless.”

“Hey!” Dominick shouted as he had long dropped and forgotten about his cigarette and lighter. “Leave him alone!” he warned as he began jogging towards them. Fear had definitely gripped him, for he did not know exactly who or what he would be dealing with, but his natural instinct of being a bodyguard kicked in; the least he could do was help the poor man.

The creature looked up at the owner of the voice of authority. “Oooh, another snack for me to enjoy!” the creature seethed as he quickly shot up into the air and came back down harshly, landing on Dominic and pinning him to the ground.

Dominic immediately crumbled under the sudden weight of the beast and grunted out when he felt his head hit the ground hard. Reeling from the pain, he tried to focus his now blurred vision on the creature that remained on top of him, seeing that it had facial features much similar to a snake and horns that protruded from it’s forehead.

“You look to be a man of brute strength, but yet fall weak and coward to my undeniable power.” the creature said as it’s snake-like tongue slithered out from it’s mouth. “You’d make a great soldier to be apart of our army!”

Dominick gasped, his eyes widening as he tried to shy away from the hot, stagnant breath of the winged beast.