Chapter 3: Always Read The Fine Print

Lance looked down and was about to answer when the sound of alarms and the banging of doors exploded throughout the arena. In a matter of seconds, the rest of the guys, accompanied by arena security and firefighters, flooded the arena, pushing towards the two people on stage. Justin was the first to reach the two and he stood stock still as he realized who lay naked on the floor.

"Patrick?" Justin asked cautiously.

The rest of the guys ran up behind Justin and stopped as Justin had, recognizing, yet failing to believe their eyes.

"JC" Patrick croaked, "Can you get me some clothes?"

JC nodded and ran off stage to wardrobe to hunt some clothes down.

"Sweet Jesus!" Justin said a minute later as the initial shock wore off.

"No...not quite the Messiah...just your friendly neighborhood fallen angel" Patrick said with a hurt smile, then groaned as he got up off Lance and stood shakily to his feet.

"Lance...tell me...what did you do? How did you do this thing?" Patrick asked, noting JC running towards him with warm up pants and a shirt in his grasp.

Lance stood up slowly, forming the explanation in his head, unsure himself of what had actually happened.

"Sam and I were talking..."

JC held up his hand. "Tell us ALL when we get back to the hotel."

The ride back to the hotel was initially quiet as the guys stared at their friend, almost still unable to believe that he stood in front of them.

JC was the first to break the quiet when he put his arm around Patrick's shoulders and gave him a squeeze.

"God." JC said with a small sigh, "It's great to have you back."

After they reached the hotel, Patrick leaned on the dresser as the rest of the guys sat in various locations around the room, watching Lance, who sat on the edge of the bed. Lance looked up from his shoes and sighed, then began to tell the guys what had just transpired at the arena.

The other five guys in the room sat, stunned, as Lance finished his tale, describing the lightning and the pentagram, then pulled the paper out of his pocket and laid it on the bed.

"So...this manager guy, Sam, said he could get me back on a bet? What were the terms? What did he get if he succeeded?" Patrick asked, as Chris reached out and grabbed the paper and began to read it.

Lance's eyes filled with tears and he lowered his head.

"YOUR SOULS!!" Chris yelled out as he read the line in the contract. "It says that if he gets Patrick back, that gains control of both your souls, thirty days hence."

Lance began to cry softly. "I didn't know.....I just wanted him back..."

Patrick walked over and sat down beside Lance on the bed and took him in his arms. "Oh Lance, it'll be OK."

Lance raised his head and sighed, "How? I signed off on it."

Chris nodded, "In this funky red colored ink."

Patrick reached over and grabbed the contract from Chris and gasped. "That's not ink....it's blood."

"I stabbed myself on the tip of Sam's pen...it must be the blood from that cut."

Patrick looked up and sniffed. "Who is this guy, this Sam....and why would he want our souls?"

Joey reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. "Here's his card....he gave it to Steve this afternoon at the arena."

Patrick looked at the card and blanched. "Samael.....Ahriman?"

Justin looked at Patrick, watching the color run from his face. "Who is he...Do you know him?"

Patrick turned to the guys and nodded. "Guys...those are two different names for the Devil."

Lance looked up at Patrick, his face white as a sheet. "I bargained my soul, and yours as well, to the Devil?!?"

The door of the room opened and Mike walked in, his arms full of bags. "Hey fellas...a little help here.....oh hey there Patrick...Patrick?!?!?"

The door shut a millisecond before Mike's body hit the floor, passed out from the shock of seeing his dead lover alive once more.

Patrick sighed as he slowly got up from the bed, "That could have gone better."

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Author's Note: If this story made absolutely no sense to you, you may need to read the first two stories that lead up to this one. "Gifts Of Love" and "A Boyband Christmas Carol"

-Billy Burrew