Chapter 8
AJ slowly opened his eyes.
As his blurred vision cleared, his surroundings came into focus. He was expecting to find himself in bed, in
his hotel suite, but when he looked around, he found that he was lying on a
hard floor. The walls around him were
made of shiny metal. Blinking, he sat
up, looked around once more, and realized he was in an elevator.
What the hell is going on? AJ wondered, continuing to study the elevator
in confusion. It wasn’t everyday you
wake up to find yourself lying in an elevator.
But suddenly, he remembered what had happened the last time he had
been awake. He remembered walking into
the elevator and the sudden push from behind.
He remembered hitting his head on the wall of the elevator and crashing
to the floor. He remembered the sharp
pain in his head, and the world going black.
And that was it.
Immediately, AJ’s hand went up to pull down the hood of his
sweatshirt, which he had pulled up to hide his face from any fans that might
have been lurking around in the halls, and he felt the back of his head,
expecting to find dried blood encrusted in his hair. But there was nothing. His hair was not even stiff with gel, for he
had showered before he had gone to bed that night, washing all the gel
out. His hair felt soft and normal.
Shrugging, AJ then moved his hand to his forehead, again expecting
to find blood or at least a bruise or bump there from where he had hit his head
against the wall. But again, there was
nothing. His head felt fine.
Frowning, AJ scooted closer to the shiny metal walls, hoping to
catch a glimpse of his reflection so he could see for himself. But he could see nothing in the shiny metal.
Why am I wasting my time here? AJ suddenly thought, standing up. I should go back to the room. He suddenly realized he had no idea how long
he had been there. Would Bianca be
worried that he hadn’t come back?
AJ thought for a minute, then decided he couldn’t have been lying
there for very long. Surely other people
would have come into the elevator and seen him there. Then again, it was the middle of the night.
Deciding he had better get back to his room right away and find
out for himself, AJ went to the panel of buttons alongside the elevator doors
and started to push the button that opened the doors. But when he reached out his index finger to
hit the button, his finger seemed to go straight through it, as if it were
nothing but air.
Stunned, AJ shook his head, blinked, and tried again. But again, it seemed as if his finger touched
nothing.
I must have hit my head pretty hard after all, AJ thought. My depth perception must be screwed
up. Deciding the panel must be
farther than it looked to him, he reached out further and tried to push the
button. But to his total shock, his hand
went straight through the panel and disappeared from the wrist down.
Recoiling in shock, AJ pulled back his hand, which appeared again
at once. He blinked three times and
stared at his hand in disbelief.
Am I hallucinating or something? AJ wondered, rubbing
his head. It felt solid enough; his hand
did not go right through that.
As he stood there, pondering what had just happened, he was
startled by a sudden rumble, as the elevator doors slid open. AJ was surprised to see that the hallway
outside the elevator was brightly lit, not dim, as it had been when he had left
his room earlier.
I guess I was passed out for longer than I thought, he realized,
shuddering at the thought of himself lying unnoticed in an elevator for
hours. Where was Bianca? Hadn’t anyone been looking for him?
To his surprise, Bianca suddenly walked into the elevator. Howie was at her side, one arm around her
waist, the other holding Krystle’s hand.
Brian and Leighanne, Kevin and Kristin, and Nick followed. Several bodyguards brought up the rear. Everyone dressed in shades of black and dark
gray and wore very somber expressions on their faces.
“Hey, guys, where’s the funeral?” AJ said with a laugh, expecting
Bianca to gasp and fling her arms around his neck and scream at him for
disappearing and making her worry.
But he didn’t get the reaction he expected, not from anyone. Rather than the looks of surprise and relief,
his friends’ faces remained solemn, blank even.
They did not even acknowledge his presence.
“Guys?” AJ asked, making his voice louder this time. “Hey, you guys, where are you going?”
Marcus, one of their bodyguards, pressed the button for the ground
level – Hey, his hand doesn’t pass through it, AJ noticed – and the
elevator lurched and headed downwards.
“Guys? Hello! Come on, you guys, this isn’t funny! What’d I do?
Why are you ignoring me?” AJ’s
voice rose with anger and hurt as he still got no reaction. No one even looked at him. AJ glared at them all, his gaze focusing on
Nick. Was this one of Nick’s stupid
pranks, to ignore him and pretend he didn’t exist like that?
Gee, thanks for your concern, guys, AJ thought
sarcastically. They’re not even glad to see me alive. Didn’t they even worry about me? Didn’t they wonder where I was or what
happened to me?
Glaring, AJ stormed over to Nick and waved his hand in front of
his friend’s face. To his surprise, Nick
did not flinch, did not even blink.
“Nick?” AJ asked. “Nick!” He shouted Nick’s name at the top of his
lungs, but again, no one moved. It was
like they couldn’t hear him. Like he
wasn’t even there.
The elevator came to a stop, and the door slid open. The group walked slowly out of the elevator,
and AJ followed, walking alongside Nick.
To AJ’s surprise, the lobby was nearly deserted, a huge change from what
they were accustomed to – hotel lobbies filled with screaming, crying
girls. But now there was not a fan in
sight.
Security led them outside, where two black limos were parked in
front of the large hotel. The group
divided up – Brian, Leighanne, Kevin, and Kristin got into one limo, and Howie,
Krystle, Bianca, and Nick climbed into the other. AJ slid in beside Bianca, but she pretended
like he was not there.
“Bean, would you just look at me?” AJ asked in exasperation. “Come on, Bean! What did I do? Why are you doing this to me?”
And suddenly he realized what must be going on – Krystle had told
Bianca what had happened. Bianca knew he
had cheated on her, and she and the rest of the group were giving AJ the silent
treatment. She knew that just plain
ignoring AJ, who always craved attention, was torture to him.
“Bianca…” AJ’s tone softened.
“Bean, I’m so sorry. I never
meant for it to happen. I’m so
sorry. You have to believe me. I love you!
I would never intentionally cheat on you! I didn’t realize what was happening, I
swear!” But she continued to ignore
him. Growing frustrated, AJ threw up his
hands and exclaimed, “Oh, grow up, Bianca!”
“You alright, Bean?” Howie asked softly, ignoring AJ’s comments.
Bianca had folded her hands tightly in her lap and was staring
down at them, her bronze hair falling into her eyes. She made no attempt to push the coppery
strands out of her face, nor did she answer Howie.
“It’s gonna be alright, Bianca,” Krystle put in
optimistically. “This is the worst
part. After today, everything’s going to
get better. You’ll start to get over
it.”
“I’ll never get over it,” Bianca said quietly. “He was the first man I ever loved. Why did this have to happen?” Her voice began to waver on the last few
words, and she blinked furiously. AJ saw
that tears had filled her eyes.
“Bianca!” he cried pleadingly.
“It doesn’t have to be like that!
I still love you! You can still
love me too! We can be just like we used
to be! Nothing has to change!”
Nick reached over and turned on the radio. Loud rock music flooded the back of the
limousine.
Howie gave Nick a look. “Is
that really necessary, Nick?” he asked in exasperation.
“What?” Nick asked, shrugging innocently. “I just thought we could use some music to
take our minds off everything.”
“Turn it off, Nick,” Howie said, and, scowling, Nick reached over
to turn the radio off.
“No, leave it on,” Bianca said suddenly, stopping him. “It’s okay.
I could use a distraction.”
The song ended after a couple more minutes, and a news brief came
on.
“This is Todd Larson with Fort Lauderdale’s Channel 2 News. Much of the world is in mourning today after
the death of what looks to be the third victim of the serial killer police have
dubbed “The Smiley Face Killer”. The
Smiley Face Killer has struck three times in Florida, targeting young adults in
their teens and early twenties. The
latest victim was not just a normal young man, however. Early Tuesday morning, the body of
twenty-four-year-old Backstreet Boy-“
The words of the news anchor were suddenly cut short as Howie
quickly shut off the radio. “Sorry,
Bean,” he said softly.
Bianca’s shoulders had begun to shake, as she began to cry
again.
But AJ’s body was trembling even more.
He had heard what the man on the news had started to say. The body of twenty-four-year-old
Backstreet Boy…
AJ McLean.
He suddenly knew why no one could hear or see him.
He was dead.
***
