Chapter 35
Bianca left her house at twenty till six. She was going to dinner with Brian,
Leighanne, Howie, Krystle, Kevin, Kristin, and Nick. They were supposed to have met for dinner the
night before, but had decided to push it back a night because Bianca was still
in the hospital for observation. Tonight
was Brian and Kevin’s last night in Florida; the following morning, they and
their wives would be flying home.
Bianca started her car, then looked over into the passenger seat
and giggled. There was the Gold Light,
shimmering in the seat.
“You don’t really have to travel by car, do you, AJ?” she asked him
mentally.
“No,” AJ laughed. “But this
way, I can be by your side the whole way there.”
“Aww… that’s so cheesy, AJ.”
“Hey!”
Bianca laughed out loud and pulled her car out of the long
driveway. She stopped at the end, put
the car in park, and got out. She walked
to the mailbox, remembering she had forgotten to bring in the mail that
afternoon. She retrieved the stack of
envelopes from the mailbox and got back in the car, pausing to sort quickly
through them. Bill, bill, junk mail,
bill, catalogue… and a letter. Addressed
to her in bold block letters. No return
address. Curiously, she tossed the other
mail over her shoulder into the backseat and tore open the last envelope.
There was only one thing inside, and it wasn’t a letter after
all. It was a picture, printed off the
computer on plain white typing paper.
The picture was a recent one, taken just days before AJ’s death, right
before the start of the tour. It was of
all five Backstreet Boys and their women – AJ and Bianca, Howie and Krystle,
Brian and Leighanne, Kevin and Kristin, and… Nick. Bianca saw herself standing in the front, AJ
behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist.
She was smiling widely, her face radiant. But AJ’s face… AJ’s face was not even there. It was hidden, covered up by a small, yellow
sticker.
A happy face sticker.
***
“I don’t get it,” Bianca
said to AJ as she drove to the restaurant where they had decided to meet. “Why a happy face sticker? We already know whoever kil-… did it… wasn’t
the Smiley Face Killer. And why now,
almost two months later?”
“I have no idea,” AJ
replied. They were discussing, of
course, the picture with the sticker over AJ’s face. What was the significance of it?
“Should we tell anyone?” Bianca
asked, pulling into the restaurant parking lot.
“Howie or Brian or anybody?”
AJ considered this for a moment.
Then he said, “No. What’s the point in saying anything? We don’t know why somebody sent you that, so
why even bring it up to them? It’s
probably nothing.”
Bianca nodded, parking the car and shutting off the ignition. She unbuckled, threw open her car door,
grabbed her purse, and got out, locking the doors behind her. Then she walked into the restaurant, AJ’s
shimmering golden figure trailing behind her.
***
“It was great to see you again, guys,” Bianca said, hugging
Leighanne, then Kristin, then Kevin, and finally Brian. She held on to Brian for a bit longer than
she had the others, and he gave her a quick wink as she finally pulled away.
The eightsome had enjoyed their dinner together, talking for over
two hours in the private party room they had reserved in the restaurant. Now it was dark outside, and they were saying
their final goodbyes to Brian and Leighanne and Kevin and Kristin, who would be
leaving early the next morning.
“Well, we’re gonna head back to the hotel,” said Kevin, putting an
arm around Kristin’s waist. “Bean, take
care of yourself.”
Bianca smiled. “You too.”
Kevin and Kristin said goodbye to the others and walked out into
the parking lot. While Brian and Leighanne
got ready to leave as well, Bianca glanced up in time to see Kevin and Kristin
drive away in their rented green BMW.
***
Bianca whipped her car out of its parking space and raced out of
the parking lot so fast her tires squealed and a horn honked at her. Ignoring it, she pulled onto the highway and
drove, accelerating to past the speed limit.
As soon as she could, she turned off the highway onto one of the back
roads, the same one she had gotten a flat tire on a month earlier, when she had
had to call Howie to come help her.
As she turned, she noticed the car behind her turn as well. It was a dark green color and looked like a
rental car from the license plate.
Taking her eyes away from the rearview mirror, Bianca focused on the
road again, taking the zig-zagging turns with less care than usual. Her anger had faded some, but she was still
upset. How could Brian do this to
her? She had always thought Brian to be
so sweet and compassionate. He loved to
joke around and play tricks on people, he and Nick together, but this didn’t
seem like the sort of joke he would play.
She supposed she had judged him wrong.
He wasn’t the sweetheart she thought he was.
Reflexively, Bianca glanced up into the rearview mirror
again. She saw that the rental car was
still behind her, tailgating her. She
glared into the mirror at it and tapped her brakes, just to mess with the
driver a little. She normally did not
play games with tailgaters, for she was afraid of some road-rage-driven lunatic
ramming her car off the road or something equally frightening. But today, she was in no mood to be toyed
with. Seeing that the other car did not
back off, she put on the brakes again, harder this time, causing the other
driver to slam on his to avoid rear-ending her.
Smiling in satisfaction, she accelerated again, bringing her car to a
good ten or fifteen mph above the speed limit, hoping to leave the other car
behind.
No such luck.
In a moment, it was behind her again, tailgating her even more.
“Back off, asshole, I’m in no mood,” Bianca muttered, tapping her
brakes again.
Now, suddenly, the other car crossed the double yellow lines in
the middle of the road and got into the other lane. Bianca watched it out of the side mirror with
wide eyes. She could see the outline of
the driver, but was unable to make out his face.
“What the hell are you doing?” she mumbled, still watching. “It’s a no passing zone, idiot!” She half hoped another car would come in the
opposite direction, just to scare the crap out of the other driver, but then
there would be either a head-on collision, or the other car would swerve to the
right… exactly where her car was positioned.
With an annoyed sigh, Bianca took her foot off the accelerator and
let her car slow down so that the other car could pass her. But it didn’t. It slowed down too, so that it was right
beside her. She could see it out of the
corner of her eyes, but she did not look at it.
Instead, she kept her eyes fixed on the road in front of her.
“Oh God, oh God,” she whispered, her anger gone, replaced by
fear. This car was following her. What was it going to do? Run her off the road? She debated quickly in her head about what to
do – put on the brakes and slow down more, or accelerate and try to leave it
behind? All she knew was she didn’t want
it right there beside her. She opted for
the brakes first, deciding that was safer, but as soon as she put on her
brakes, so did the other car. So, her
heart pounding rapidly inside her chest, Bianca gunned the engine, pressing the
accelerator to the floor, watching as the needle on the speedometer crept
up. 40… 45… 50… the other car was
accelerating now too… 60… 65…
“Oh God, oh God,” came the whispery chant. “Leave me alone!”
She was going seventy now, whipping around curves, terrified she
was going to skid straight into one of the guardrails, terrified the other car
was going to try to ram her, terrified another car was going to come at them
from the opposite direction. But there
were no other cars around, nothing coming in either direction. It was a relief… but it also unnerved
her. There was no one around to help
her.
They were coming up to Winnopega Lake now, she could see it up
ahead on the right side. The road curved
around it, and if she went off the road now, she’d go straight into the
water. There were guardrails of course,
but could they withstand the impact of a car going seventy?
Scared out of her wits by now, Bianca took her foot off the
accelerator. The other car slowed again too. Her speed began to drop… 65… 60… and that was
when the other car started to drift into her lane. She laid on her horn, edging her car as close
to the narrow median as she could. The
other car continued into her lane as if she were not even there. Her car crossed the white line on the side of
the road, inching into the median, closer and closer to the guardrail.
Suddenly, the other car sped up and swerved into her lane, nearly
sideswiping her. Bianca slammed on her
brakes so hard that her car suddenly began to skid. She tried to turn into the skid as she had
been taught, but the car was out of control.
Before she could get herself back on the road, the car slammed hard into
the guardrail. Her whole body was thrust
forward. The airbag popped out, stinging
her face. She screamed out in pain, her
voice muffled by the airbag, as the seatbelt dug into her stomach and chest,
taking her breath away. And then,
everything came to an abrupt stop, the car, the forward motion of her body, her
scream… the only thing still going was her heart, pummeling erratically against
her ribs.
The airbag had cushioned her head and protected it from hitting
the steering wheel, but it did little for the rest of her body. Her stomach and chest burned with fiery pain
from the impact of the seatbelt retraining her.
She couldn’t see with the airbag in her face, and she felt trapped. She squirmed claustrophobically, trying to
push the airbag away, but it only aggravated her torso more. Panic set in, and her breathing grew even
more rapid and uneven.
Where was the other car? she wondered vaguely. The other driver? Was he coming for her? If so, to help her… or to hurt her further?
She began to feel dizzy and even more panicky, and then, the black
army of unconsciousness began to close in on her, invading from the corners of
her eyes and trying to conquer over her.
She fought it at first, but finally, it surrounded her. Powerless to stop it, she let her body
surrender…
Bianca awoke with a start and found herself in bed, in the
darkness of her room. She was breathing
rapidly, and her skin was clammy with perspiration.
That’s it! she realized, thinking back to her nightmare. That’s what happened! That was how she had hit the guardrail –
another car had been chasing her. She
tried to picture the car in her head, tried to remember what it looked like
before the details slipped her mind. Green,
she thought, I think it was green.
And it was a rental.
A green rental car. A green
rental car had chased her, had run her off the road.
Kevin had been driving a green rental car.
***
