Chapter 43

 

“BRIANNA?!?!?”

 

Brianna Chambers, Bianca’s best friend, stopped just inside the room and smiled, matching the same devious grin Krystle had on her face.

 

“You look surprised, Bianca,” she said.  “We did good, Krys.  She never had a clue.”

 

Krystle grinned.  “I know, Bree.  Way to go, girl!”

 

Bianca looked between the two of them.  “What the hell is going on here?!” she cried.  “H-how did this happen?!”

 

“It’s all your fault, you know, Bean,” Krystle said.  “You had Brianna down to visit once, do you remember?  We all went to dinner – Howie and I, you and AJ, and Brianna.  That’s how we met.  And the rest is history.  Brianna and I started talking on the phone – we talked about you at first… and how much we despised you… how much we wanted what you had.”

 

Bianca’s gaze shot from Krystle to Brianna.  “Wanted what I had?” she repeated.  “Bree… what?  What did you want?”

 

Brianna laughed bitterly.  “Basically everything, Bianca.  Let’s compare, shall we?  Let’s see – we have you, who graduated college, came to Florida, and started dating a Backstreet Boy.  Suddenly you’re living in a perfect world of fame and fortune, while I’m up in North Carolina, working my ass off to support my little boy.  I didn’t get to go to college like you, Bianca!  I didn’t get to move to Florida!  I didn’t get to meet AJ McLean and suddenly have all the nicest things and be recognized and loved!  And you… good friend that you are… you didn’t even attempt to share, did you?”

 

“What?  What do you mean, share?”

 

“You could have invited me down more!  You could have introduced me to the other guys!  Nick was still single; you could have hooked me up with him!  But no!  You’re so damn selfish, Bianca!  You only think of yourself, not your poor best friend!”

 

“Brianna, listen to yourself!” Bianca cried.  “This is insane!  You’re just jealous!  That’s no reason to want to kill me!”

 

“We’re beyond reasoning,” Krystle said, taking a menacing step forward.  Bianca could not even step back now, for she would just step further into Brianna’s clutches.  Now she was really trapped.

 

“Now,” said Brianna, “Krystle’s already told you her side of the story.  I suppose I need to fill you in on my side.  Might as well let you see what geniuses we are before we kill you.  Maybe then you can appreciate us.”  She grinned satanically.  “I did all the killing, the attacking, the stabbing.  It was me, not Krystle.  That night AJ died… she was down in the café, just like she said, waiting for you.  Only we both knew you wouldn’t come.  She called, and I waited in your hall, waited for you to come out.”  She glanced at Bianca’s shocked face and laughed.  “Oh yes, I was there.  I believe I told you I was in Alabama, visiting Nicole then, didn’t I?  Nope, not true.  I was in Fort Lauderdale with you.  I was in that hall.  And I killed your boyfriend.  I thought he was you.  I’d seen you wear that sweatshirt before – you wore it around the house the one time you let me stay with you.  It was dark; I didn’t realize it was AJ.  I leaped out as he was getting in the elevator and hit him with a baseball bat.  The blow alone killed him.  Then, once he was dead, it was time to do the carving.  The plan was to make the death look like a serial killing.  So I rolled him over to carve the smiley face in his stomach.  Imagine the surprise I got when I saw it was him and not you.  But it didn’t phase me.  I knew there would be another chance to correct my mistake.  I knew it would be best to go ahead and finish my task.  So I carved the happy face into his stomach.  And it worked, for awhile.  Everyone believed the Smiley Face Killer murdered him.”

 

“What about Howie?” Bianca asked, her voice a dry whisper.

 

“That was easy.  I wore a padded bodysuit and special shoes that would make me tall, so I would look more like a man to Howie – another way to rule me out as a suspect, of course – not like you would have ever suspected me anyway.  Then I followed Howie into the kitchen as he was putting away groceries, and I stabbed him in the back.  Piece of cake.  Then I went for Krystle.  She knew what was coming, of course.  We had practiced.”

 

“I used to be an actress, you know,” interjected Krystle.  “That’s how Howie and I met actually –  I auditioned for the video for ‘The Call’.  You probably didn’t know that though.  You didn’t care.”

 

“I-“ Bianca started, but Brianna screamed, “Shut up!  Let me finish!”  Bianca fell silent.

 

“Thank you,” Brianna said with a smile and continued, “Yeah, Krystle was an actress.  So her screams of agony were quite realistic.  And of course, being an actress, she knew people in the business.  She was able to get lots of fake blood to use so her death looked real to Howie, who was lying half-dead on the floor.  Then, once she was ‘dead’, I dragged her out of the room, and Howie never realized it was all an act.  That plan went off without a hitch.”

 

“And that’s basically it, I guess,” said Krystle.  “That brings us up to now.  Time to finish our plans.”  A malevolent smirk spread across her face.  “Time to… finish you.”

 

***

 

AJ watched Nick, desperately trying to come up with a way to reach him, to make him believe before it was too late.  Nick was smiling now.  He had gotten a high score on his game.  A screen had come up for him to put his initials in for the high score list.  And AJ knew this was his chance.  He solidified both his hands – something he had never done before – reached out, and grabbed the Nintendo controller out of Nick’s hands.

 

Nick screamed in surprise and fright.  From his perspective, all he saw was the controller being ripped out of his hands by some invisible force.  Now he saw it being held in midair. 

 

“AHHHHH!” he screamed, jumping to his feet.  But before he ran screaming out of the room, something made him glance at the TV.  A letter A had appeared in the spot for the first initial on his game.  He watched as the letters flipped by in the second space – A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I… J.  It stopped on J.  AJ. 

 

“Oh God!”  Nick cried.  “AJ?!”

 

And suddenly, he saw him.  Or what had to be him anyway, though it didn’t look like him.  It was a sort of light thing.  It was a shimmery gold color and sort of elongated, like a vague human shape.  It hovered off the ground right where the Nintendo controller was suspended in midair.

 

“AJ… is that you?”

 

And suddenly, he heard AJ, heard his voice as if it were not just in his ears, but right inside his head.

 

“It’s me, Nicky.”

 

“Oh my God!  AJ, how… what…?”

 

“There’s no time to explain now, Kaos.  Bianca’s in trouble.  I need your help.  We have to get to Howie’s house NOW.”

 

“But, why?  What’s going on?”

 

“No time.  Close your eyes and concentrate on Howie’s house.  Concentrate hard,” AJ instructed.

 

Confused, thinking this was maybe just a hallucination of his slightly drunk mind, Nick had no choice but to obey.  He closed his eyes and pictured Howie’s house in his mind.  And suddenly, he felt as if he were falling, as if he were passing out.  Too much to drink, he thought vaguely, as the vertigo increased. 

 

And then, suddenly, it stopped.  And when he slowly opened his eyes again, he was lying on the grass outside Howie’s house.

 

***

 

 

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