Chapter 27
“Brian!” AJ cried out in his mind, relived, excited, and so happy he could
cry all at the same time.
“AJ… is that really you??” came Brian’s voice, filled with a mixture of
emotions similar to those that AJ was feeling.
“Well, congrats, buddy.
Looks like it worked. I think
I’ll leave you two alone now to reunite,” Lindy said suddenly. AJ jumped at the sound of her voice, having
forgotten she was still there.
“Yeah… bye,” he said vaguely.
She disappeared without him really noticing.
“Hey… where did the other one go?
Who is that? The silver one?”
“That’s Lindy. She’s
another… well, we both are… I know this sounds crazy, but we’re…”
“Angels?”
“Yeah… you really are a Believer.”
“Well, I can’t believe this. I… I can’t believe I’m actually talking to
you again, AJ! Is this a dream?”
AJ laughed. “God, I sure
hope not… erm… not sure I should be taking the Lord’s name in vain… but Lindy
does it, so I guess it’s okay… yeah, but anyway, this better not be a
dream! Cause I’ve been trying for over a
month to reach Bianca, and now I finally got to you!”
“Bianca? I’ll tell her,
Aje! I’ll tell her that you’re… well…
that you’re not really gone, I guess.”
“Yes! Tell her, Bri! Please!
I want to talk to her so bad… and I know she misses me.”
“She does, man. She’s not
herself… she’s not the same person she was when you were… alive. Maybe this will help her.”
“I hope so.”
There was a pause. There
were so many things AJ had thought of to say before this actual moment, but now
that he was finally talking to Brian, he couldn’t think of what to say
next. His thoughts were jumbled in his
cramped mind.
“AJ… how did this happen? I
mean… why are you here? How did you
become… an angel?”
“Well… I don’t really know… Lindy knows more about this angel
stuff than I do… but here’s what I do know…”
And as quickly as he could, AJ filled Brian in on everything that
had happened to him, everything he knew about being an angel, everything he had
done to try to reach Bianca.
And then it was Brian’s turn.
Suddenly, when AJ had finished talking, he thought of something to ask,
the question he should have asked from the very start, the thing he most wanted
to find out from AJ. “AJ…” he
asked, “… who did this to you? Who-“ It felt so strange to put this in words. “-killed you?”
“What to you mean?” AJ asked back in confusion. “It was that serial killer… the Smiley Face
psycho, right?” Without waiting for Brian’s answer, he
continued, “If you want to know who the Smiley Face Killer actually is…
well, I have no idea… I never saw his face.”
“Oh…” came Brian’s downcast reply.
“… well, I guess you haven’t heard… it wasn’t the Smiley Face Killer
after all.”
“What??” AJ exclaimed internally. “But… but that’s what I’ve been hearing
everywhere! That I was the victim of
that serial killer!”
“That’s what we all thought.
But whoever did do it just disguised it to look like the Smiley Face
Killer’s work. According to the police,
the murderer was just… after you.”
AJ was silent a moment, as he processed this information. The murderer was just… after you. After him.
Just after him. His death had not
been a random serial killing after all.
Someone had wanted him to die. He
was shocked and upset by this at first.
Then he just got mad.
“What?!” he cried to Brian. “But…
but who would hate me that much?? Who
would want me dead?”
“I don’t know,” Brian said sadly. “That’s what we’ve all been wondering.”
AJ fell silent again, trying to remember if there was anyone who
had had something against him, anyone who would have a reason to hate him. He could think of no one, no one except for
certain ‘N Sync teenyboppers and hard rock lovers who hated him just because he
was a Backstreet Boy. But no one like
that would murder him because of his music… would they?
The silence in the room was shattered by the click of a door
opening.
“Leigh’s home,” Brian
told AJ.
AJ made a quick decision. “Don’t
tell her about me,” he said urgently. “Don’t tell anyone, except Bianca. Let’s just keep this our little secret for
now, okay?” He wanted to explain his reasoning behind
this, that for all he knew, his murderer could be one of them, one of the other
Backstreet Boys or their girlfriends and wives, one of the members of their
little group. It sounded crazy, but he
couldn’t rule out the possibility. And
he didn’t like the idea of his killer knowing that he was still around, that he
still existed as a spirit, an angel. He
wanted to tell Brian all this, but there was no time. Leighanne would be coming into the bedroom in
a matter of seconds, and she would know something was up if Brian kept trying
to speak to AJ with his mind.
Brian didn’t need an explanation.
He just seemed to understand. “Okay,”
he said. “I won’t tell a soul.”
“Thanks, Bri. I’m going to
go now,” AJ replied.
“When will you be back?” Brian
asked, sounding almost afraid, as if he feared he would not get to talk to AJ
like this again.
“Soon,” was all AJ had a chance to answer, before Leighanne stuck her head
in the bedroom.
***
“Ma’am, I’m really sorry, but if you don’t have a receipt, I can’t
just give you your money back. You can
exchange the book and buy another book in its place, but I can’t give you a
cash refund,” Bianca said, her patience waning, to a middle-aged female
customer, irate that she could not return a book to the store and get her money
back without her receipt.
“I don’t want another book,” snapped the woman. “I want my money back!”
“I know, ma’am, but our return policy is that we can only give you
your money back if you have the receipt,” Bianca said again, irritated. This was the worst part of working retail –
angry, pushy, stubborn, stupid people.
“Well, that’s a ridiculous policy!” shouted the women, her
nostrils flaring.
“Most stores have the same kind of policy, ma’am,” Bianca replied
flatly. “Now, would you like to exchange
the book for something else or keep it?”
“I said, I want my money back!”
“And I said, only if you have your receipt, and since you
obviously don’t, the only way you can return that book is if you buy another in
its place!” Bianca retorted, her voice
rising. Calm down, she scolded
herself, trying not to lose her temper.
“Fine! I’ll find another
book to exchange it with. But I’m
warning you, this is the last time I ever deal with your store again, missy!”
Bianca ignored her, inwardly thinking, Well, that’s a plus for
us, and started to call up the next customer as the huffy lady stalked off
to find another book. But she was
interrupted by someone running up to her counter.
“Bean!” came the excited hiss.
Bianca found herself gazing into a pair of wide, crystal blue
eyes. “Brian? What are you doing here?” Bianca asked with a
smile.
“I have to talk to you! In
private! Can you take a break soon?”
came Brian’s reply.
“Um…” Bianca glanced at her
watch. It was almost quarter till
ten. “Can you wait about fifteen
minutes?” she asked. “I have a break at
ten.”
“Okay,” said Brian. “I’ll
go find something to read until then, I guess.” He flashed her a smile and wandered off,
disappearing between bookshelves.
Surprised by his unexpected visit to the store and curious about
what he wanted to talk to her about, Bianca shrugged and called up the next
customer, hoping the fifteen minutes till her break would pass quickly.
***
At 9:58, Bianca closed down her register and emerged from behind
the counter to hunt down Brian. She
found him in the Theology section, leafing through some book, which he quickly
snapped shut and stuck back on the shelves when he spotted her.
“Can we go somewhere private?” he asked, looking meaningfully at
her.
“What about here? No one’s
in this aisle,” said Bianca, looking around her.
“No, somewhere more private,” Brian insisted.
“Okay…” Bianca thought for
a moment, then said, “Come on.” She led
him through the aisles to a door marked Authorized Personnel Only and
went through it. Inside was the storage
room, where they kept old damaged books and boxes of new shipments. Bianca took a quick walk through to make sure
there was no one inside. There
wasn’t. It was a Thursday, and since new
books, like CD’s, came out on Tuesdays, they didn’t get shipments till at least
Saturday.
Bianca and Brian walked to the very back of the storage room and
took seats on a couple of beat-up-looking cardboard boxes of books.
“Okay, now what is it?” Bianca asked curiously.
“Okay, I have something to tell you, and I know you’re probably
not going to believe it, but I swear it’s the truth,” began Brian.
This sounded strikingly like those letters from “AJ” she had been
getting. The “I’m an angel”
letters. She frowned. “What?” she asked, her voice flat.
“It’s about AJ.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I… I talked to him this morning.”
“Sure.”
“No, Bean, seriously, I did.
This is gonna sound crazy, but… he’s an angel.”
Bianca was not sure exactly why she reacted the way she did. Maybe it was because the store was so busy
that day, and she was stressed out by all the customers, especially that
obnoxious “I want my money back!” lady.
Maybe it was because it was AJ’s birthday, and she was upset. Maybe it was just hormones. She wasn’t sure why. All she knew was that right then, something
inside her snapped, and she cried out, “Stop it! Just stop it, Brian!”
“Bianca, please, you have to believe me, he spoke to me!”
“Yeah, sure, he spoke to you, just like he’s been writing me letters! You were the one who wrote those
letters, weren’t you? Weren’t you,
Brian?”
“What letters? I didn’t
write any letters,” Brian said, looking utterly confused.
But Bianca did not see that.
She could not see that. A blind
rage had come over her, and she was convinced that Brian was behind this evil
trick that had been played on her, that Brian had written her those letters,
that Brian was now carrying the joke a step further by telling her he had
talked to AJ the Angel.
“Yeah, right, go ahead and deny it all you want! I figured you would!” Bianca cried, angry
tears rising in her eyes. “What kind of
sick freak are you!? Messing with my
mind like this! Especially on his
birthday!”
“Bianca, I’m sorry, I don’t-“
“You’re sorry? So you’re
admitting it then, aren’t you?! You
ass!”
“No, I’m not admit-“
“Whatever, Brian. What the
fuck ever. Just leave me alone; I’m sick
of this crap,” Bianca spat, twisting on her heel and storming out of the
storage room, Brian hurrying along behind her, stammering his apologies, trying
to make her understand. She let the door
of the storage room slam in his face and went straight into the staff room,
where she found Eddie, eating a bag of chips.
“Bean?” he asked when he saw her angry face, her teared-up
eyes. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“I have to go now,” Bianca choked out, trying to keep her tears
from spilling. “Cover for me,
please?” She grabbed her purse and
without further explanation, walked out of the staff room.
Brian was outside waiting for her.
“Get out of my way,” she muttered, pushing him rudely aside and brushing
past him, ignoring his pleas for her to just listen. Eddie came bursting out of the staff room and
chased after her as well, asking her what was wrong. She ignored both of the men and just kept
walking as fast as she could. As soon as
she made it outside the store, she broke into a run across the parking lot to
her car, leaving both Brian and Eddie just outside the double doors to the
store, staring after her, flabbergasted.
***