Blind Rage

Part 2

When I opened my eyes, realization that the nightmare had gotten worse yet again, struck me. They were back. The fat man, the mother, Terri, and Marcus. Terri’s boyfriend, Kurt, was nowhere to be seen. Kyung was standing over me, her hand on her cheek. I looked up at her and she motioned for me to keep still. That was funny because I hurt too bad to move anyway. Then something else caught my attention. Something very very wrong.

Terri was kneeling in front of Nick’s seat. She was smoothing his hair and holding his hand. He looked mildly confused, but not totally disgusted like I would have expected. I forgot I was supposed to keep still.

“What the hell are you doing?! Get your hands off of him!” I glared at her. My voice was weak, but my tone icier than the frigid air.

Terri whirled around and glared at me. “Haven’t you done enough you heartless bitch?! He is nearly dead because of you.”

Her words hit home and I lowered my head, unable to reply to that one. But her next words burned right into me.

“It’s okay Nick, I won’t let that little bitch hurt you anymore. She and her friends think they can kidnap my boyfriend and put you through this? Well, don’t worry baby. We’ll see they get what they deserve!” She smiled at him.

My jaw dropped. “What the hell are you talking about?! Nick??” I was scared now. Maybe more so than ever before.

He looked at me, his eye narrowed. “You kidnapped me??”

I shook my head, the panic rising. “No! God, Nick, don’t you remember...”

“Shut up whore!” Marcus slapped me hard. He kneeled down in front of me and spoke in a low, menacing tone. “If you know what is good for you, you’ll keep your mouth shut. I won’t hesitate to kill Kyung, Brian, or even Nick so don’t play with me.”

Nick looked around. “I- I can’t remember anything.”

Terri’s mom put her hand on his shoulder. “Sweetheart, it’s going to be okay. That little bitch kidnapped you and Brian. You remember Brian right?”

Nick’s eyes widened. “Oh god, is he okay?”

Terri shook her head. “Baby, I don't know. Lizz and her friend made him have a heat stroke. They didn’t give him his meds and they were going to whip him too. He is really really sick.”

I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. Kyung looked sick. “Nick...” I started weakly.

He looked down at me, his eyes hard. “I swear to you, you’re going to pay.”

My eyes filled with tears, my heart breaking. He didn’t know me at all.

Terri exchanged pleased glances with her mother and then Marcus. “That’s right baby. Together, we will make her pay.”

Nick nodded. “I say we leave them here. Just let them die out here in the cold.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

His words hit me with more force that Marcus’ slap. This wasn’t Nick. He never would have made a comment like that. Never. “Please, Nick...you have to snap out of it. It’s Lizz! Don’t you remember all our chatting? The hospital? What she did to us?! Nick, please!!” I burst out.

Marcus immediately grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me away. “NOOO!!!” I howled. “NICK!!!”

Marcus kicked me roughly in the side. “Shut up!!! Damn you are stupid!”

Kyung started to run towards us, but Terri’s mom stopped her. “I know you’ve got a good head on your shoulders girl. You aren’t quite as impulsive as your friend. Maybe you will do the smart thing and keep your mouth shut.” She stared into Kyung’s eyes.

Nick was watching the whole thing wide-eyed.

Marcus finally let me go and marched back over to where everyone else was. I could see them still, but I was too weak to move. Helpless tears streamed out of my eyes and I sunk deeper into despair.

Brian, hearing all these new noises, moaned. Nick jumped up and swayed unsteadily. Terri grabbed him and held him steady. Slowly they made their way to Brian. Terri’s mother was already there and they were moving the other seat that had him pinned. It was hard to see his face from where I was, but as far as I could tell, he looked worse.

Terri’s mom glanced at her daughter. “I don’t think he’s gonna make it.” She tried to sound upset about this, but I could hear the fakeness in her voice.

Nick looked at her sharply. “What?! Oh god...” Sheer horror was written all over his face. Brian only moaned again. His eyes fluttered a moment and fell shut again.

“I’m sorry baby.” Terri hugged Nick.

Nick tried to push the tears that were forming away. Behind his back, Terri rolled her eyes at her brother. Then her face lit up.

“Baby, you have to make her pay. She is stealing Brian away from you. This is all her fault.” Terri whispered to Nick.

“Yeah, man. you’re like a brother to me and so is Brian. We can’t let that little bitch get away with this. She has put you both through so much. Brian’s dying because of her.” Marcus encouraged, taking full advantage of Nick’s amnesia and uncharacteristic behavior.

Nick turned sharply and glared at me. “You are going to pay!!!“ Tears of rage and sorrow streamed from his eyes and he started walking slowly towards me.

~*~*~*~

As I walked closer towards my kidnapper that was sitting on the floor, I saw defiance in her eyes, well, that and a little bit of a hurt look on her face. She was so damned convincing. I knew that she was gonna try her best to get out of this situation by lying to me.

I bent over to grab her shirt and a wave of dizziness came over me, causing me to take a step backwards.

“Let’s just leave them bitches here to die, no sweat off my back,” I said to Terri.

“Fine with me, if that’s what you want Nicky sweetheart,” Terri replied with a grin.

“I just want to get Brian some help, he’s not looking too good,” I observed.

Kyung couldn’t stay quiet any longer. She knew that they had cut Lizz down and with her feeling that she had caused all of this in the first place, Lizz was willing to accept the decision to be left to die.

“You can’t do that! That’s murder Nick, do you want murder on your hands?”

As I raised a hand up to hit this girl, something inside of me clicked. I knew that this was just not right. This girl had her eyes closed, waiting for me to hit her and I just couldn’t do it.

“Maybe next time I won’t feel so generous,” I said laughingly as I dropped my hand. “You are not to address me in that manner, got it?”

Kyung stared at Nick. She did not like the person he became with this amnesia. Brian’s moans turned everyone’s focus onto him again.

“I don’t know if I can budge this seat, he’s really wedged,” Marcus sputtered as he looked at the seat that was pinning Brian. “I’ll just yank the hell out of it and see what happens.”

As Marcus started to violently pull at the seat, Brian’s moans grew louder and then suddenly into screams. When the seat finally was pulled back, my knees started to give out on me. Blood was everywhere on Brian’s legs.

“Come on Brian, we need to go get you some help,” Marcus directed.

Brian’s chest was rising and falling quickly with the short gasps that he was taking. “Leave me alone,” he faintly whispered.

“Bri, we have to get you some help!” I insisted, hoping I could get through to him.

Brian just shook his head no in reply. “Let me die.”

“What?! Brian, no! You don’t mean that!” Nick cried. Brian didn’t reply, only struggled for breath.

“Hey, Nick, man, I’d like to leave them up here to die too, but we may run into a problem.” Marcus interrupted.

“What’s that?”

“Well, there could be rescue workers out looking for us since the plane crashed. Ya know, the little black box? Well, the authorities will just take Lizz and Kyung away and they won’t have to pay for what they have done. Not like they should. You have to avenge Brian.” Marcus replied, a gleam in his eye.

Terri’s mom spoke up. “We’ve got something figured out. We can get Brian here to hospital and then we can make these two pay. We need to start making our way down the mountain. Normally the walk would take about two days, but in our condition it could take a lot longer. The next town is about 30 miles away. Our destination is about six. But, I’ve got something planned when we reach our destination.” She grinned evilly. Nick smiled back, not knowing her intent.

~*~*~*~*~

I laid there, watching everything unfold, completely helpless. When Nick had reached down to grab me, something had caused him to stop. I knew that somewhere deep down inside him, the real Nick was trying to get out. He had almost hit Kyung, but again he couldn’t bring himself to do it. I didn’t know whether to be encouraged by that or not because, after all he did say he wanted to leave us here. With every second that passed, my heart sank deeper into despair.

Terri’s mother and the fat man had disappeared for a few moments. Nick’s face turned a few shades paler than white when Marcus had pulled the chair away from Brian. I gasped as well when I saw the blood. There was too much of it.

Kyung started to go over to Brian. “We need to find out where he is bleeding from.” Nick glared at her and marched over to her, standing over her menacingly.

“I don’t give a flying shit what you have to say. This is your fault and you had better stay far far away from him.” He said icily. Terri stood behind him, grinning smugly. Marcus used that moment to find out where his parents had gone to see what they should do about Brian. Temporarily forgotten, I made my way over to Brian. I was half dragging myself, but it didn’t matter. I had to get to him.

Weakly standing on my feet, I gently shook Brian. “Bri! You gotta wake up. Please don’t give up on me. We are in a shitload of a mess here.” I whispered urgently. I was going to get discovered any minute.

Brian looked at me, his eyes pleading. “It hurts...” Was all he said.

I nodded, squeezing his hand. “Can you tell me where?”

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” I looked up to see Nick glaring at me, his eyes full of hate. “Don’t you dare go anywhere near him!” He raged, stomping over to me. He roughly shoved me away and I let out a yelp as I slammed into the seats across from where the aisle used to me.

“Nick?!” Brian stared at Nick in shock, not believing what he just saw. Terri immediately caught on and hurried over.

“Brian, you’re delirious, sweetie. Don’t talk.” The last sentence was more of a menacing command then a concerned suggestion. She didn’t have to worry because he was already slipping back out of consciousness. Kyung didn’t get a chance to say a word, as Marcus appeared by her side instantly.

“You are just looking for your deathwish aren’t you!” Nick exclaimed as he stood over me. I no longer had the strength to as so much as move from my crumpled position on the ground. I lifted my head. I was losing control of everything and I didn’t want to live anymore. I had to try again though. I believed in Nick. He had to come through. He always had before. It was something that I depended on.

“Nick, fight this. I know this isn’t you.” I whispered. This was getting harder and my hope slipped a little further.

“You don’t know me.” He stated flatly.

“If you are so sure that this is right, then why are you so confused? Why is your stomach so tensed up that it hurts?” I shot back.

His eyes narrowed. “How the hell do you know that?!”

Oh god, I couldn’t do this. “Because Nick, I feel it. Don’t you remember? The hospital? The panic attacks? It never went away! Remember you afflict me?! I feel almost everything Nick!” My voice cracked. You afflict me was the joke that we always had about the whole unexplainable phenomenon. No one could explain it, but ever since that first panic attack, this had become a part of our lives.

Nick shook his head. “You’re lying. Stop lying!” Her words unnerved him. How could she know what he was feeling?

I shook my head. “You know it’s the truth.” I whispered. My strength was slipping away.

“You’re crazy.” He hissed.

“Like a shithouse coon.” My voice broke. Another inside joke. I don’t even remember where this one came from. I had told him one day about something that I had done and he said something about how I was crazy as a shithouse coon. He always called me that now.

He blinked twice and my heart flip-flopped. A small flicker of hope filled my heart, but was immediately put out when he shook his head and his eyes grew hard. “No. More. Lies.” His hand raised up in the air to strike me and every glimmer of hope and fight that was in me was now shattered. As was my heart.

~*~*~*~

I slapped her across the cheek with the back of my hand and I instantly regretted it, it didn’t seem right. The look on her face pretty much said it all to me. It wasn’t a look of hatred or anger, it was more of total shock.

Something about this whole deal wasn’t right and I couldn’t put my finger on it. How did she know how I was feeling. I didn’t know her, but she seemed to be able to describe every detail of what I was feeling at that exact moment. And her stories about stuff she said we did together, she thought that up too awful fast in my opinion.

Brian’s moans directed my thoughts away from the girl. His pants were soaked with blood and his skin was almost a grayish color. I remember the one girl had a medical authority type attitude about her.

“Hey, you! Go check Brian and see where he’s bleeding from,” I growled at her and reached out and braced myself to keep from falling when a wave of dizziness swept over me. She jumped up rather fast and rushed over to my friend.

Kyung wasted no time in trying to assess and evaluate Brian’s situation. His color wasn’t looking very good and he was soaked in sweat and was definately running a fever. She gingerly lifted the edge of his shirt and immediately gasped. This was definately not a good situation he was in.

“What?” I asked her when I heard her take a breath in.

“I need something to use as a pressure bandage, he’s loosing too much blood,” Kyung replied as she looked around the plane.

“What’s wrong? Where’s he bleeding from?” I asked, afraid to look.

She lifted Brian’s shirt and exposed a gaping hole.

I suddenly felt sick to my stomach and my legs could no longer support me. Everything went black as I dropped to the floor.

~*~*~*~

I opened my eyes and was greeted by Terri’s smiling face.

“There you are hon, you gave me a little scare,” she smirked.

“Wha...what happened?”

“Evidently you couldn’t stand seeing Brian’s injury, you fainted.”

It was slowly coming back. I still felt sick to my stomach and had this pounding headache.

“Well, while you were sleeping it off, Marcus and Dale made a portable stretcher thingy for Brian and we are just about ready to go. Instead of leaving Kyung and Lizz here for dead, we just decided we could use Kyung’s nursing skills to help Brian so he won’t die and both of them could pull the stretcher for us.

“That sounds like a good idea,” I replied. I couldn’t decide why, but this whole thing seemed weird. This Terri hanging on me and all those others were being cheerful. Terri kept reminding me that this was Lizz and her friend Kyung that were the masterminds of kidnapping us but I was finding it harder and harder to believe.

Terri led me to Brian, they already had him placed in the makeshift stretcher and had him covered in thick blankets. He was unconscious and still looked pretty gray but now besides his labored breathing, he was starting to cough every so often. Kyung mumbled something about pneumonia setting in.

“Go ahread and get yourself situated, bitch” Terri ordered Lizz. “I need you to drag this stretcher.”

Terri handed me a heavy wool blanket. As I wrapped it around my body, I noticed that everyone had a blanket except for Kyung and Lizz.

“What about those guys?” I asked.

“There wasn’t enough to go around, they don’t need one,” Terri snapped back.

I knew she was lying when I saw a cabinet on my way out stocked with blankets. “But there’s some more here,” I pointed out.

I looked out to where Kyung and Lizz were standing. The snow was up to their hips. I grabbed two blankets and headed out the door, sinking into the snow.

“Here, use these,” I said as I tossed the blankets to the girls.

“Hey, I told you Nick to leave them alone, they don’t need blankets,” Terri sharply reprimanded.

“But they aren’t any good to us dead though, let’s use what we can of them and worry about them later,” I argued.

Something just didn’t seem right with this whole situation but I couldn’t figure out why. I did notice that Terri seemed to be a little obsessed over the dead guy laying partially covered in snow.

Kyung gratefully wrapped the blanket around her shoulders, but immediately sighed with frustration when Lizz didn’t move. She started to wrap the blanket around her, but Lizz stepped away.

“Lizz! You need to keep this around you!” Kyung exclaimed.

Lizz shook her head. “You take it. I don’t care.”

Kyung was shocked at the tone in Lizz’s voice. It was flat and hollow. Her back was turned and her shoulders hunched forward. Kyung knew she was in a considerable amount of pain, but that wasn’t even half of what she was going through emotionally. “Lizzie, you can’t give up on this!” Kyung pleaded, putting a hand on Lizz’s shoulder.

Lizz whirled around. “Why?! Why shouldn’t I? You give me one reason why I should keep fighting this! I’m going to die anyway! My lung has a gaping hole in it and my heart is fucking broken. I can’t do it anymore! Everyone tells me how strong I am! Bullshit! If I were strong I could do this!” Lizz stopped and shut her eyes. “But I can’t.” She finished with a whisper, a single tear slipping out.

Kyung ached inside. Lizz always pushed people away when she was hurting. She would never admit to needing anyone because she felt she had to be strong. She didn’t ever want anyone else to feel any pain because of her. She always knew how afraid Lizz was of letting people in. Letting them get close to her heart. She had lost so many people that now she did everything in her power to keep it from happening again. Even if that meant pushing them away. If you push someone away, they can’t leave you first. Kyung saw the despondent look in her eyes. Her spirit had been totally crushed and all the fight was taken from her. She saw Nick backhand Lizz and the look of hurt in Lizz’s eyes. It had left a mark on her face, but a much deeper one on her soul.

“Okay!! Let’s go. Time’s a wasting. There isn’t much sunlight left.” Terri’s mom ordered.

Marcus was talking to Nick and the fat man was making sure that they had everything they needed. Kyung watched with interest as Terri knelt before a figure in the snow. She surmised that it was her boyfriend, Kurt. Terri was bitterly crying and kept throwing poisonous looks towards Lizz. After a few moments Nick noticed and started walking over towards Terri.

“Who is that?” He glanced at the body.

“It’s uh...he was a friend of Marcus’. He didn’t survive the crash.” Terri lied.

Nick nodded uncertainly. “I’m sorry.” The more he thought about his, the more things didn’t add up. These two girls certainly didn’t act like kidnappers. The Korean one seemed to care too much about Brian’s welfare. Why was she so worried about him if she was just after his money or whatever? And the look on her face when Nick had started to go after her. She didn’t even try to resist him. She only stood there, silently. And then there was this other girl, Lizz. She looked like the wrath and not just physically. Yeah, she had a black eye, a nasty gash above that same eyebrow, a bandage around her arm and was covered in blood. The bandage caught his attention. It looked like it had been there for at least a little while. Why would a kidnapper need a bandage? But then Terri had a bruised nose. Maybe they had fought. But above all this, Lizz’s behavior was just not right. Terri was so cocky and bitter towards Lizz. Why not the other way around? Wouldn’t the kidnapper be the cocky one? Lizz just looked wounded. And vulnerable. He had to turn away from her eyes. He felt like he had looked into them before and that unnerved him.

Terri got up from her spot next to Kurt and walked over to Lizz. She could feel Nick glancing at them. She turned and smiled sweetly. He frowned back and then swayed a little. “Nick?!” Terri called anxiously. She didn’t need him passing out again. That risked the plan. She whirled back around to Lizz and now Kyung, who had appeared protectively by Lizz’s side. “What the fuck is wrong with him?” She hissed.

“He needs his meds Terri.” Lizz said quietly.

Terri rolled her eyes. “You still willing to give yours up so he can get his?” She mocked in a teasing tone. She fully expected Lizz to tell her to forget it.

“Yes.”

Kyung widened her eyes and cursed herself for not being with it while everything was happening before. Nick started to walk over to the three girls. Marcus stopped talking to Dale and his mother. He nudged them both and all three watched.

“What’s going on?” He looked at each of them in turn. Kyung stared at him sadly. Terri smirked at him. Lizz turned away.

Terri pulled a bottle out of her pocket. “You need these.” She said to him. “Come on.” She pulled him away from Lizz and Kyung before one of them could say anything. Kyung looked over at Lizz, hoping for a reaction, but Lizz wouldn’t look at her.

~*~*~*~*~

They had been walking for a little over an hour. It seemed like a lot more, but that was probably because it was getting colder. Lizz hadn’t said two words the entire time. Her coughs seemed to mix in with Brian’s. Every so often they stopped so Kyung could check on Brian’s injury. Nick didn’t know this, but Terri and her family were trying to keep Nick and Brian as far apart. They didn’t want Brian to say something to ruin it. Kyung was level-headed enough to keep her mouth shut. And Lizz wasn’t any worry anymore either. Terri was pleased that things were going perfectly. Nick didn’t remember a thing and Lizz was suffering unimaginably.

Marcus was busy rambling to Nick about nothing as Kyung and Lizz checked on Brian yet again. He couldn’t help but notice how careful Kyung was to make it as painless as possible for Brian. And even though Brian wasn’t fully with it, he was still in visible pain. Nick watched in surprise as Lizz knelt in front of him and encouraged him with soothing words. She held his hand when it hurt the most and brushed his hair off his face. Nick thought it was an awful tender gesture for someone as evil and cold-hearted as Terri said she was. For some reason Terri seemed to get mad when he tried to go near Brian. He reasoned that she just didn’t want him to be upset by his best friend’s condition. Still...

Terri came over and pulled Marcus away, giving Nick a perfect opportunity to try to get some answers. He pushed through the snow over to his “kidnappers.” Brian had slipped back into unconsciousness. Kyung eyes widened in surprise as Nick approached, but Lizz wouldn’t even look up at him.

“How is he?” Nick asked, afraid to know.

“I’m afraid he is getting pneumonia. He’s lost a lot of blood too. I’ve been able to make it stop, but he needs to get to a hospital.” Kyung said softly.

Nick nodded, swallowing back the lump in his throat. “And you guys?”

“We’ll make it. You worry about yourself, Nick.” Kyung stared at him.

Nick paused, debating whether to ask this next question. It had been bugging him. “Why did Terri have my pills? What was up with that?” He figured that his “girlfriend” wouldn’t have them if she had been kidnapped. Wouldn’t one of these two had them? Maybe Terri had forced them to surrender the pills...But why wait so long to bring it up if he obviously needed them?

Kyung hesitated. Nick picked up on that right away. “Also, why am I on seizure medication?” He pressed.

Again there was no answer. He looked at Lizz. “Answer me!” He barked, immediately regretting how harsh his voice came out. She actually shrunk away from him. His heart sank when it dawned on him that she was afraid of him. That made him even more upset. Why the hell should he care what she thought or felt?

Terri’s voice rang out, breaking the confrontation. “Nicky-poo! I have an idea on how you can get even with her for what she did to Brian.” She ran up to him and threw her arms around him, smiling with sick pleasure.

I returned her smile. She was obviously excited about revenge on our kidnappers and I could see that Brian was in so much distress, I was willing to do anything to fix all of this. An eye for an eye.....

“Okay, tell me about your little plan, I’m game,” I replied.

“Well Lizz is really sick besides that cough and stuff from the crash,” Terri started.

Something was clicking when Terri started talking. This definately did not seem right to me.

“Go on,” I encouraged.

“She had lousy lungs and kidneys and had to have them replaced. She is supposed to take these so that her body don’t reject them,” Terri said as she pulled some tiny prescription bottles out of her coat pocket.

I narrowed my eyes at the bottles and then looked over in the direction of Lizz and then at Kyung and then back at Terri.

This was starting to get a little crazy. Now Terri knew specific details about our kidnappers? This is all too weird. “How the hell do you know that kind of info and how come you have her medications?”

Terri’s eyes shifted back and forth as she tried to quickly think of an answer to dig herself out of the hole she was digging herself into.

“We overheard those two talking and I stole them off her after the plane crashed,” Terri smiled as she lied, obviously impressed with her quick thinking skills.

I was still having trouble with this whole scenario. “So, um what was your plan to get even with Lizz?”

She was about to answer me when suddenly Lizz cried out in pain. My first reaction was to go to her and help her, but Terri held me back. I pulled my arm away from her grasp and knelt down beside Lizz. She was rocking back and forth and shaking her head no.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered.

“Nick just leave her alone, she’s done plenty to us, I think it’s good to see her hurting for a change. She didn’t seem to care too much when she had you whipped with a leather strap,” Terri screamed.

I turned around and stared, not saying a word, just stared at Terri. She was so cold and heartless sounding and I couldn’t believe that anyone would whip someone with a strap. Sure, my back was sore, but that was from the crash.

I looked at Kyung as she was checking Lizz over. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She needs her meds, her body could be starting to reject the organs,” Kyung replied with tear filled eyes.

“Terri give me the bottles,” I calmly asked.

The look in her eyes nearly knocked me off my feet. She was obviously pissed. They were hard and cold looking.

“Dammit, she needs her pills! You can’t keep them from her, that would be murder!” I was desperate. I jumped to my feet and rushed as best as I could through the deep snow towards her.

Terri pulled the pills out of her pocket and a sick smile played across her lips.

“NO!” I shouted, afraid that she was going to do what I was thinking.

I was inches away from Terri when she threw all of the bottles far away. They were airborne and almost looked like they were sailing in slow motion. “There,” Terri sneered. “Now no one gets their medications.”

“How could you do that!?” I yelled.

Terri laughed. “Like this,” she replied as she imitated the act of throwing the bottles out into the snowbanks.

I started feeling funny and sank back into the snow. “But she needs those Terri, what are you doing?”

“She threw them all out, Nick!”

Kyung knew she was going to be punished for calling out, but she didn’t care anymore, she couldn’t stand to see this unfold in front of her and just stand there doing nothing.

I turned and looked at Kyung, her face mirrored an image of pure defiance.

“She threw out yours, Lizz’s and Brian’s,” Kyung stated as she stood her ground.

“Brian’s? Terri, why?”

“Why the hell not,” Terri laughed as she shrugged her shoulders.

“What will happen Kyung,” I asked quickly, as if my knowing would stop anything bad from happening to my friend.

“Well, Brian’s helps to keep fluid from building up around his heart and Lizz’s stops her body from rejecting the transplanted organs. And Nick, yours is to keep you from having seizures,” Kyung recounted quietly.

That was all I could take hearing. I lunged at Terri like a wounded animal. I heard Marcus yell and then everything went dark.

~*~*~*~*~

I sat by Brian's side waiting for him to wake up. I just checked his injuries and I wanted to give him a little water. Our kidnappers decided that now was a good time to take a break for the night. As soon as Terri had launched our pills out into the nothingness, her mom went off on her. Saying that we needed to be alive. Marcus had slammed into Nick full force, knocking him out cold. To punish Kyung for opening her mouth against Terri, she was ordered to go find them. The bastards sent her off by herself with a flashlight and a blanket. She was told not to return until they were found.

They dragged Nick's unconscious body over to where they set up their little camp. It was nearing sunset and they had set up two tents for themselves. Brian and I were about 20 feet away from them. Far enough away from the fire that they built as to not feel it.

Brian moaned softly and I glanced at him. He screwed up his face and tried, unsuccessfully, to shift himself into a more comfortable position.

"Brian, try not to move too much okay?" I said softly.

"Is Kyung back yet?" He whispered.

I shook my head. "I don't think Nick has woken up yet either. How are you doing?"

"Cold." He watched my expression carefully, knowing that I was carrying everything inside. "It's going to be okay. We can't give up."

I shook my head miserabley. Kyung was out god-knows-where on a hopeless mission, Brian was in serious trouble, and Nick wasn't even Nick. I choked back a sob. "He hit me." Now why the hell did I go and say that?! That was the least of what I was upset about. It was that he didn't know me and that he had looked at me like he wanted to tear me apart.

Brian reached over and squeezed my hand. "He didn't mean to sweetie. You know he would never to anything to hurt you. He isn't himself." He remembered the look on her face and the hurt in her eyes after he had backhanded her. It wasn't the sting of the slap, but it ran much deeper. Lizz knew that this wasn't really Nick, but she had been cut down when she was already at the breaking point.

~*~*~*~*~

Nick opened his eyes and looked around groggily. Almost immediately Terri's tear-stained face came into view. They were both inside a blue tent.

"Why Nick? What the hell does she matter?" Terri wept bitterly.

Nick had stop and get his bearings, but then it all rushed back and his face flushed with anger. "You threw all our pills away! Terri, that is murder. I don't care what Lizz did, she needs those pills! And Brian! And mine? Why did you throw mine away?" He exclaimed.

"She took everything away from me. My job, my money, six months of my life, my Kurt, and now she is taking you away!" Terri yelled.

My Kurt?! Nick thought. "What do you mean your Kurt?" Nick asked, his eyes narrowed. "And what the hell are you talking about?"

"I tried to make you believe what a horrible person she is and that I am the good one here. And you still fucking want to believe that that little bitch is the better one. Tell me what is so damned special about her!" Terri glared at Nick.

Nick now knew that Terri had been lying to him about stuff. "I want to know the truth and ALL OF IT!" Nick bellowed at her. He expceted Terri to get all weepy on him, but instead she jumped up, her eyes wild.

"Alright! You want the truth. Fine." She stormed out of the tent and marched over to where Lizz and Brian were sitting. She grabbed Lizz roughly by the arm and dragged over in front of Nick. She glared down at Lizz, kneeling in the snow, trembling. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT BITCH!" She screamed, kicking her in the side.

Lizz cried out and tried to curl up to protect herself. Nick started to go to her, but Terri held her hand up, stopping him. He didn't want to agitate her any further.

"Here's your truth, Carter. Seven months ago you tried to kill yourself. Lizz here tried to stop you by saying she was going to drink some medicine that would kill her. Well she was too late. She didn't quite do the job because you still took the pills. You both ended up in the hospital. You both almost died. I would have made a shitload of money off of both of you selling information to the National Enquiror, but you and your stupid friends had to ruin that. See?! It is her fault. If she would have stopped you, none of this would have happened." Terri screamed.

Lizz was still kneeling next to Terri, about 6 feet away from Nick. She looked at his face and it was drained of color. She bowed her head.

"No nooooo!" Terri snapped, grabbed Lizz's hair and jerking her head back up, forcefully. "You look at the misery you have caused him."

Lizz's tear filled eyes met with Nick's horror filled and she wanted to die right then.

"And you know what else I wasn't lying about?! The whips. She tried to escape. Why? Did she think she was going to try to rescue you guys? Please. Well, since nothing we did to her made her learn her lesson, we had to hurt someone dear to her heart. You got whipped because of her!! What do you think of that huh?! She isn't so special anymore is she!" Terri ranted like a crazed lunatic. Then she stopped and smiled. "Even after that she still had some fight in her. You know what Nicky? I should have known all along that all it took was you. You were the one that broke her spirit Nick. It was all you."

She laughed at the stunned look on Nick's face. "Now, I'll be happy to finish the job." With that, she turned on Lizz and attacked her with wild fury.

~*~*~*~*~

I felt almost as if I was detached from the entire situation. None of this made any sense to me. This girl was telling me I tried to kill myself and then Lizz stopped it, or at least tried to stop it and I caused her problems and nearly killed her. Brian, well he just looked terrible. I remembered he needed his meds to prevent fluid from building around his heart. It was slowly taking its toll with him no being on his meds.

I was jerked back into reality when I hear Terri’s screams at Lizz. Lizz had coward down into a ball, trying to protect her body from the blows that Terri was pummeling. Blow after blow was thrown and every time her fist connected with Lizz’s body, she cried out in pain.

Terri stood up and started to kick Lizz in the side. That was when I finally couldn’t stand it any more.

“STOP IT, YOU’RE GONNA KILL HER!” I screamed. Terri laughed and kept on kicking and stomping Lizz, half of the blows were hitting her and the other half striking the ground beneath her body.

Seeing a large rock nearby, I jumped up and grabbed it. At that moment in time, I didn’t care about anything but stopping Terri from what she had set out to do. I heaved the rock at her, hitting her squarely in the back. Terri immediately cried out and her body went limp. She landed on the ground, her legs sprawled out in an odd position.

“I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS!” Terri screamed.

I stared at her in disbelief. I felt a hand clamp tightly around my arm. I was quickly spun around and was looking face to face at Marcus.

“What the fuck did you do to my sister?!” he demanded.

It didn’t help with Terri screaming in the background, I was groping for words. Terri’s mom and that fat man rushed up to her, the look she shot at me made my blood run cold.

“I was defending Lizz, an eye for an eye,” I spat back, staring at him squarely in the face.

Marcus balled his hand up into a fist and punched me in the face, sending me reeling backwards, landing ontop of Brian. I instinctively put my hand to my nose and gasped when I pulled it back and saw the bright red blood.

“Come on Carter, let’s have at it,” Marcus taunted as he stood over me, his fists tightly clenched.

I glanced over at Lizz, she was still curled up, Kyung kneeling next to her, rubbing Lizz’s back. The anger was building in me and I knew I would have a hard time controlling it. I looked at his waist when the campfire cast a reflection of the gun in Marcus’s belt. Before I could change my mind, I jumped up and grabbed for the gun.

My hands shook as I held the gun and pointed it towards Marcus. At first he looked shocked, then he smirked.

“Carter, you don’t have the balls to use that,” Marcus laughed.

I swallowed hard. “I will if you push me.”

Marcus just stood there, laughing. “Like hell you will.”

He pushed me too far with his taunting. Making sure I aimed past him, I closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger.

“Next one goes between your eyes.”

I think it shook him up, because his eyes grew wider. Terri suddenly became eerily quiet. Her mother kept rocking back and forth and glaring at Lizz and I.

“Just leave us alone!” I directed.

Marcus shook his head. “No deal Carter. You’re gonna pay for this, that was assault and battery with intent to commit murder!”

“Well then, we’ll have a cell side by side cause there is no way in hell you’re getting away with kidnapping charges!”

Terri’s mother started screaming at me. “What am I going to do now? She can’t move! You’ve ruined her life!”

I narrowed my eyes at this woman that accused me of ruining her daughter’s life. This same girl ruined Lizz’s life by taking something out of context for money and had it published in a rag newspaper. Lizz’s life was forever changed by that, it had to be. I shook my head sadly.

“Lady, you have absolutely no idea.”

Kneeling down beside Lizz, my heart broke as I heard her whimpers. I looked at Kyung and mouthed the words, “how is she.” The tears in her eyes and the shrug of the shoulders basically told me what I needed to know.

“Any luck with finding the meds,” I asked.

Kyung shook her head no. I could tell she was emotionally as well as physically exhausted.

“Do you think she will be able to travel? Help must not be that far away,” I stated as I looked over towards the glow of what had to be a town in the distance.

“She has to be Nick, we have no other choice,” Kyung replied.

“Try and get some rest, we’ll head out when daylight hits,” I ordered.

“Shouldn’t we be worried about Terri and her family?” Kyung asked warily.

I looked over towards Terri and saw that the family was busy attending to her. “I think they’re pretty much preoccupied.

Leaning against a rock, hanging onto the gun, I situated myself so I could keep an eye on the three of them and Terri’s family. Folding my arms across my chest, I was determined to keep awake. I was also determined to fight that weird feeling that was creeping up on me again

~*~*~*~*~

Kyung knew she had to be professional, but it was hard when it was her best friend that she was trying to help. Terri had nearly beaten her within an inch of her life. Terri’s family were back in their own tents, tending to Terri. Nick had settled against a rock, watching all of them warily. He was shooting poisonous looks towards the tents and looks of concern towards Brian and Lizz. Kyung felt for him. He now knew the truth, but his memory was still shoddy. He knew Terri and her family had kidnapped him, Brian, Lizz and her. On the other hand he didn’t know her or Lizz or any part of the past seven months that had to do with that.

Kyung went back to Lizz. Lizz’s breaths came in short gasps and she kept drifting in and out of consciousness. Her right arm was broken, right in the middle. Kyung set it as carefully as she could, but Lizz still screamed in torment. Her shoulder on the same side was dislocated and Kyung had to pop that into place. Almost immediately Lizz passed out and Kyung used the opportunity to put her arm in the sling that came in the first aid kit that Nick had forced away from Terri’s mother. Lizz came back around shortly after. She still wasn’t breathing very well. Kyung was sure that more ribs had been broken and by the labored breaths, it looked like there might be a leak in one of Lizz’s lungs. Her face and body were bruised and even more blood coated Lizz’s clothes. Kyung wanted to cry. After an hour Kyung felt herself nodding off. She tried to fight it since she had to keep checking on Brian and Lizz, but with each passing second, it got more difficult. After awhile Nick came over and sat down by them. There had been no noise from the tents.

“Kyung, you need to get some rest.” Nick said softly.

“I need to stay awake and watch them.” Kyung argued, her eyes falling shut involuntarily.

“You sleep, I’ll watch.” Nick insisted. He was tired too, but he felt like he needed to stay awake and protect them. He had a huge headache and guessed it was caused by a lot of reasons. One, his memory was full of holes. At least he was on the right side now. Two, he was tired as hell. Three, he also kept getting dizzy spells. He was afraid it had to do with whatever he needed seizure medications for. The more he tried to make sense of everything, the more his head hurt.

~*~*~*~*~

I woke up for the umpteenth time, but this time it wasn’t Kyung that was watching over me, but Nick. I widened my eyes and automatically tried to scoot away. I gasped at how bad it hurt to even move at all.

“Hey, hey, keep still.” Nick admonished softly. “You’re pretty hurt.”

I watched him warily, afraid that he would lash out at me again.

“I’m not going to hurt you. God, I’m so sorry Lizz.” He looked at me, his eyes full of remorse and sorrow.

I didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from filling with tears.

“Oh god, don’t cry either. You’re going to make me feel even worse. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me and why I don’t remember everything. I know that it was Terri and her family that kidnapped us. But...” He paused, his eyes downcast. “...I don’t remember you or your friend. I’m sorry.”

I still didn’t say anything. Silent tears continued to slip down my face.

“Is what she said true? That I tried to kill myself and you tried to stop me? But we both ended up in the hospital? And a newspaper printed the story and now your life is totally changed?” He asked me.

“Our lives Nick, our lives. Everyone new what had happened. I lost a semester of school, some friends, and my privacy. You had it harder than I did though, being in the public eye. But we stuck it out. We helped each other when a new article was printed or someone else cut us down.” I choked out.

His eyes were wide as I tried to get this out. “But how is this your fault like Terri said?”

“Because I should have been able to stop you before it was too late. And I didn’t. I failed you Nick. As a friend.” I looked down.

He tipped my chin with his finger until our eyes met. “That doesn’t sound right to me. If I tried to kill myself, then that is my own fault. Not yours.”

I shook my head. “Nick, it doesn’t matter what you say. I will always blame myself.”

“What did I do?” He whispered.

“What do you mean?” I replied.

“I mean, how did I make it worse for you? She said I...I broke...made it worse for you.” He could barely get the words out.

Damn it! How could I answer that? That would only make him feel worse. Cause you didn’t know me. After seven months and everything we have gone through. And you didn’t know me. Not only that, but you loathed me. You wanted to tear me apart because you thought I hurt Brian. I would die before I would ever do anything to hurt either one of you. I let you get closer to my heart than most people ever have and you left me. And you still don’t know me. Right! Like I could say that to him. It would kill him and it wasn’t even fair. It wasn’t like he made a choice to have amnesia. Sure, tell my heart that. It was the look of hate in his eyes when he shoved me away from Brian. Of course he didn’t know any better. He was looking out for his best friend. Trying to defend him from a psycho kidnapper, which he thought I was. Hell, I would have done the same thing. Man, I have some serious issues.

“Lizz?” He waited, worried by my silence.

I shook my head. “Nick, you didn’t do anything wrong.” I whispered.

He didn’t look convinced, but my harsh coughing fit distracted him. By the time I was done, I was breathing in short, shallow gasps again.

“Shit, this isn’t good. I’m going to go over that hill to see about how far the next town is from here. I thought I saw one in the distance.” Nick pointed off in the direction away from us and the tents.

I shook my head weakly. “Please don’t leave.”

“We don’t have a choice here. You and Bri aren’t looking so hot and we need to get you some help fast.” He argued. “I’ll be back soon okay? I’m taking the gun. I don’t think anyone will mess with you, but if they do, scream as loud as you can and I will be back asap.” He assured me.

I watched his retreating figure. I glanced at Kyung asleep next to me and Brian on the other side of me. I shut my own eyes and tried to concentrate on breathing. I didn’t even notice Marcus slip out of his tent and go after Nick. I had no idea that Marcus surprise attacked him and that a struggle ensued for the possession of the gun. The air was still and calm until a gunshot echoed through the night. A bolt of fire exploded in my chest. On the right side, just under my collarbone. I screamed out in agony, my hand over my chest.

Kyung bolted upright, her eyes wide with terror. She had heard the gunshot and saw me with my hand over my chest, crying out in excruciating pain. Brian was immediately awake too and focused his eyes on me.

Terri’s mom and dad scrambled out of the tent. “WHAT THE HELL?”

I continued to moan and I could barely hear Kyung.

“Lizzie! LIZZIE!! Let me see!” She cried, prying my hand of my chest. We both looked at my hand, then chest, shock. There was no blood. What the- ?! NICK!!

“Oh god, oh god!! It’s Nick. He’s...he’s...” I gasped, panic setting in.

Suddenly a voice traveled through the air, from the other side of the hill. “Dad?” It was Marcus and he sounded stunned. He appeared a moment later, carrying Nick in his arms. “I...I shot...him.” He stammered. “I didn’t...m- mean...to.”

“NO!” Brian cried, his face crumpling.

Terri’s parents immediately rushed over to their son and they laid Nick in the snow. His eyes were open and darting around fearfully, not sure what had just happened. I painfully stumbled to my feet, but only made it two steps before my knees buckled and I collapsed. I sat on my knees in the snow, my chest burning with this new pain. Kyung flew past me over to him. I watched in utter horror as a dark red stain spread on his right side, just under his collarbone.

~*~*~*~

God, the pain was incredible. It took me a few moments to get my bearings before I finally realized that I had been shot by Marcus. We were fightning over the gun and then suddenly a shot went off, making my ears ring and then I felt the pain, it felt like my chest was on fire. It was becoming harder and harder to breathe with each passing minute.

I looked for Brian, I needed him more than anything in this world at this moment. Instead, Marcus and his parents were staring down at me, none of them moving, their mouths hanging open. Suddenly, Kyung shoved them aside. I guess at that moment I felt a little bit of calm wash over me. I was feeling so sleepy.

“Nick, you gotta stay with me here,” Kyung shouted.

I struggled with everything in me to get my eyes open. It was so hard, I felt so drained.

Kyung cursed under her breath as she looked at the gaping hole under Nick’s collarbone. He was losing blood and losing it fast. Kyung was afraid it nicked a major artery that ran along the shoulder. Nick’s face was becoming drained of color, almost matching the snow on the ground near him. He was losing consciousness and losing time.

Out of frustraition for the entire mess they were in, Kyung screamed which totally unnerved Marcus.

“He’s not gonna die is he?” Marcus asked hesitantly.

Kyung glared at the man hovering over Nick and herself. “Thanks to you, probably.”

“Shit, you can’t let that happen, I don’t want to go to jail and go to the gas chamber,” Marcus rambled.

“Well it’s a little late for that kind of thinking asshole,” Kyung spat. “You’ve got Brian, Lizz and now Nick. I am guess Nick will go first and then Lizz. Brian is definately going struggle for some time with the strain that has been put on his heart,” Kyung surmized.

“No, no, we can’t let that happen, tell me what to do, I don’t want anyone to die,” Marcus begged.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Kyung yelled. “What they need is a hospital and they need it now!”

“Middleton is just nort of here, only three or four miles, I can run there and get help for everyone,” Marcus offered.

Kyung didn’t answer, she was too busy trying to stop the bleeding. Blood was oosing between her fingers. “I need compresses, I need something to help stop this,” she cried.

“Ma!” Marcus yelled as he ran towards his mother.

~*~*~*~

After feeling so cold for hours, suddenly I felt warm. I looked over towards my left and saw that mom had put the Christmas tree up already and had it decorated, presents laid underneat the tree. I wanted to get up but I felt hands pushing against my body.

“Stay down Nick, we’re trying to help you,” the female paramedic said calmly. She put an oxygen mask over his mouth and Nick tried to pull it off.

I decided a nap would do me some good, maybe that feeling of someone pushing me down would go away after I slept.

“Nick, you gotta stay with us buddy, come on Nick, open your eyes.”

I opened my eyes and stared at my mom’s face. Why would she bother me about not taking a nap, this was really strange. I just wanted to sleep for a bit, why wouldn’t she let me? Finally I was drifting off to sleep......

“Shit! He’s coding dammit!”

~*~*~*~

I sat there in the snow, watching as Kyung tried to stop the bleeding. I was scarcely aware of my own sudden difficulty in breathing. I wanted to go over to them, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get up. I had no strength so all I could do was pray. Marcus was flipping out and I heard Kyung scream. That scared me and I felt the panic rising. I couldn’t lose him. Not after all this. We had gone through so much and had made it. He couldn’t die now. Then I heard her swear and yell something about not being able to stop the bleeding. I think that’s when I started to hyperventilate. The shorter and faster my breaths became, the harder it got to take in any air at all. My entire chest felt like it was on fire. It got steadily worse and I knew my lung had collapsed again. Unable to keep myself upright, I toppled over into the snow. Everything seemed to be spinning. I heard someone call my name, but I couldn’t tell who it was. The last thought I had before I became unconscious was a prayer that Nick would be okay. If he wasn’t, I didn’t want to either.

Kyung whirled around when she heard Lizz start to lose it. “Damn it! Not now. Lizz! Lizz, don’t do this to me!” She watched, horrified, as she crumpled over. “LIZZ!” Kyung was torn. She heard Lizz struggling to breathe and her sudden collapse was a very bad sign. On the other hand she couldn’t leave Nick as he lay there bleeding to death. Brian was in no condition to move with that gaping hole in his stomach, not to mention his already precarious situation. His eyes darted back and forth between Lizz and Nick, crying out of the sheer helplessness of his position.

“Get over here and hold this on him as tight as you can!” Kyung barked at Terri’s mother. Terri’s mom quickly took Kyung’s spot and Kyung dashed to Lizz’s side. Her breathes were growing weaker and her pulse was thready.

“I can’t stop it! It’s coming out too fast!” Terri’s mom screamed, frantically. Kyung jumped up from Lizz and started to go back to Nick. Meanwhile, Marcus was pacing all around, in near hysterics about not wanting to get the gas chamber. Terri was still in the tent, screaming to know what was going on. Dale was wasn’t doing anything, but staring at the whole scene like he couldn’t believe what was happening.

Somehow, through all the racket and chaos that was going on, a much louder noise was suddenly heard. Two bright circles of light swept over their little campsite. It was two helicopters.

“Thank God!” Kyung exclaimed, finally breaking down into tears of relief. She looked up as the two helicopters circled around, trying to find a place to land. She felt a rush of relief, believing that this would finally be on its way to being over.

“Shit. Shit!! I can’t go to jail!” Marcus cried frantically. “I won’t got o jail!”

Terri’s mom looked at her son and the helicopters nervously. Then she looked at her husband. “We can’t let it end this way. They haven’t paid enough!”

Kyung’s eyes nearly fell out of her head. “What the hell are you talking about?! You have no idea how much they have suffered. They might die!”

“It isn’t enough! My Terri will never be the same.” Came the angry mother’s cry.

“You don’t know that. It may be temporary!” Kyung snapped.

Terri’s mom ignored her and turned to her husband. “We are not going to let it end this way.” She pulled him close and began whispering urgently. Dale started to protest, but his wife cut him off. “It has to be this way. It’ll work out, we still will have the upper hand.”

Dale finally nodded. Kyung had no idea until they were talking about until Dale approached her. Marcus had already started off into the woods. The choppers were still circling. Kyung started to scream as Dale grabbed her and pulled her away from Nick and Lizz.

Terri still cried from inside her tent and her mother abandoned Nick and Lizz to see to her. “It’s okay baby. Mommy’s not going to leave you.”

~*~*~*~*~

“Lizz? Can you hear me? Lizz? Please open your eyes for me honey?” A faraway voice kept calling me. I felt warmer and there was a loud beating noise all around me. I don’t know how it was possible, but it felt like I was moving. I couldn’t feel anything at all and that seemed wrong. Why did nothing hurt?

“Shit! We’re losing her!”

A sensation of warmth washed over me. I felt really peaceful and I wanted to be closer to the source of it all. I started to drift towards it, but something held me back. As wonderful as this felt, it wasn’t right. Somehow I knew that going towards this wonderful, bright, peace would mean leaving people behind that I couldn’t leave. There were still things I needed to do and see and accomplish before I could go this way.

“Get the paddles...charging...300...clear!”

I tried to turn around, but it was hard. A lot harder than I thought it would be. It hurt, but for some reason that made me more determined. The further away I went from that wonderful peace, the more painful it got. It was almost too much, but then faces flashed through my mind. I had to get back to these people. Help them. That gave me strength.

“We’ve got a rhythm!!”

~*~*~*~*~

Terri’s mother stood outside Lizz’s room in ICU. Terri was having tests run so her mother had used this opportunity to find out what was going on. Lizz had just come out of surgery to repair her lung. Her chart, hanging in a slot outside the door, said “kidney rejection” in bold letters on the outside. Terri’s mother smiled. Lizz’s right arm was in a cast and then in a sling. Her other arm was treated for the bullet wound and wrapped up. The gash above her eye was deep and had to be stitched up. Thick gauze covered that and more was wrapped around her head to keep it in place. There wasn’t much they could do for the broken ribs or the dark bruises that seemingly covered every inch of her body. Terri’s mom had also heard that Nick and Brian were in the ICU somewhere. They had both undergone surgery as well and were also in critical condition. Dale and Marcus had managed to disappear into the woods with Kyung so all was not lost. They were long gone and Terri’s mom grinned again. The hell was far from over and she was pleased that these three would continue to suffer as much as possible. More than anything, at that moment she wanted to wake Lizz up and tell her that her best friend was still being held captive.

“Excuse me? What the hell do you think you are doing?!” A vaguely familiar voice appeared behind her. She whirled around to confront him, but her jaw dropped when she saw who it was.

Terri’s mom came face to face with AJ McLean. She knew it was one of Nick and Brian’s bandmates, Terri had shown her tons of pictures of them. She had heard his voice the other day when the news showed a public plea for any information on finding Nick and Brian.

“Nothing, I’m just checking on her to make sure she is okay,” she stated in a calm, cool voice.

“Why do you have so much interest in her?”

“She’s a good friend of mine,” Agnes lied, smiling.

“I have a hard time believing you on that,” AJ replied.

“Why? Whatever do you mean by that?”

This old woman was coming off a little too smug for my satisfaction.

AJ shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno, just skip it.”

He brushed past her to walk down to the ICU rooms where Brian and Nick laid. Agnes followed AJ, desperately wanting to know what room they held the two men in.

AJ, hearing footsteps behind him, turned around.

“Why are you following me? I thought your interest was with that girl,” he asked.

“Why goodness no, my daughter is a patient here and I was going down to see her,” Agnes replied.

AJ still had difficulty in trusting the old woman.

“Oh, what did you say her name was again?”

Agnes smiled sweetly. “I didn’t.”

With that said, Agnes turned down the corridor to the left and walked away from AJ.

“I’ll just have to find out where they have those two later,” she said quietly to herself.

As AJ neared the elevators, he looked at the slip of paper the receptionist had given him. It instructed him to take the staff elevators off of ICU to the 8th floor. From there he was to turn left and walk down the hall until he came to a room with a uniformed state trooper seated outside the room. He absently played with the bright blue laminated pass that hung around his neck.

Getting off the elevator, AJ took a deep breath in as he neared the room. They had placed Nick and Brian in a room together because of security reasons. They were both technically in ICU, but this was a better set up to keep them safe from fans or from those individuals that had kidnapped them. The police had told the group that the kidnappers were still at large and Brian, Nick and Lizz were still unable to give them an interview so they were uncertain of how many were involved.

The trooper stood up as AJ neared the room. AJ wordlessly held up the pass and the officer nodded him in. He slowly entered the dimly lit room. The only lights that were on were around both Nick and Brian’s headboards on their beds. Monitors were surrounding both of them towards the top and each had their own beats which weren’t in sync. One would beep and then the next. AJ had never seen so many IV’s in his life. He finally brought himself to look at each of them.

Brian’s face was a ghostly white, a tube going into his mouth and the steady hiss of the machine it was attached to caused his chest to rise and fall with every mechanical inflation of his lungs. He had a few minor scratches, AJ assumed it was from the plane crash. The doctors told him that Brian had to have major surgery to stop the internal bleeding and to close the wound from the crash. The other main and difficult part of the surgery was to drain the excess fluid that had built up in the sac surrounding his heart. They were confident that once his medications were back to normal levels in his bloodstream that he should be out of the woods from complications for his heart. Their main concern now was infection, that and the replacement of the blood he had lost. AJ shuddered as he saw a bag of blood hanging from the IV pole.

Nick was looking in as bad of shape as Brian. He also had a tube in his mouth helping him to breathe. His face was bruised and scraped. The doctors told him that Nick had taken a bullet to the shoulder and it caused signifcant internal bleeding. He had suffered two seizures since he had been admitted to the hospital and so the doctors decided it was best to keep him in a drug induced coma until the anti seizure medications were leveled off in his bloodstream.

Finding a chair in the corner, AJ dragged it over and positioned himself between the beds. He rested his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands.

~*~*~*~*~

Dr. Johan entered Terri’s room, clipboard in his hands. The look on his face indicated to Terri and her mother that he was not going to have good news to relay.

“I have just read the MRI results with Dr. Richards, our cheif radiologist and I’m afraid the prognosis isn’t very good.”

Agnes scooped her daughter’s hand in hers.

“The fracture was at the T twelve L one level. It compressed into the spinal cord. We will have to perform surgery to stabelize the vertabrae, in other words a spinal fusion,” Dr. Johan quietly stated.

“But then she will walk again after that, right?” Agnes asked anxiously.

Dr. Johan shook his head. “I’m sorry, but there is permanent damage to the spinal cord. She will never walk again.”

“NO...NO!” Agnes cried out. Terri just laid in bed, tears streaming down her face.

“It was that Carter fellow that did this! He’s the one! He should be arrested!” Agnes screamed.

“What are you saying? I thought you insisted this was the result of the plane crash,” Dr. Johan replied.

“I lied, it was Nick Carter, he threw a huge rock at my Terri’s back. He is guilty of this! He needs to be arrested,” Agnes screamed. “Arrest him!”

“Ma’am, you need to calm down, I’ll have the State Troopers come to interview you, but you must calm down.”

“I will not calm down! My daughter’s life is ruined!” Agnes snapped.

Terri continued to cry, then suddenly burst out. “And my boyfriend! She killed my boyfriend!”

Dr. Johan and even Terri’s mom looked at Terri in question.

“Whoa whoa. Who killed your boyfriend?” Dr. Johan asked her.

“Lizz. After the crash. Kurt was hurt and Lizz used that opportunity to kill him. She strangled him!” Terri’s cries grew more intense.

“Oh boy...” Dr. Johan looked mildly overwhelmed. “Well, ah, we’ll have the Troopers check into that too. I need to go write some orders. Call me if you need anything at all.” He could help thinking that the accusation had come out of nowhere as he left the room.

As soon as the doctor had shut the door behind him, Agnes focused an angry glare on her daughter. “What the hell was that?! She didn’t kill him. There is no credibility to that at all, Terri! What the hell did you just get us into?”

Terri stared defiantly back at her mother. “She needs to pay too. Her and Carter belong in jail.”

“Strangled? Terri...”

“No mommy, it’s works perfectly. You didn’t see Kurt up close. His seat belt was wrapped around his neck. That’s how he died. I’m sure his body is frozen or decayed pretty bad by now. All they will be able to tell is that he died by strangulation.” Terri replied smugly.

Agnes stared at her daughter in shock. The way she talked so callously about her deceased boyfriend amazed her. But, she had to admit that Terri’s plan was brilliant. Nick and Lizz would get what they deserved.

~*~*~*~*~

Shelia adjusted her patient’s IVs and couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness. She didn’t know much about the situation, but it didn’t matter. No one did and it seemed like everyone was waiting impatiently for this girl, Nick, or Brian to wake up. There were a lot of questions floating around, but no one knew the answers. There were police, reporters, and hoards of people milling around. Of course tight security kept the majority of the people out of the hospital, but people were crafty. Some of them had managed to get a little too close. Sheila almost dreaded Lizz waking up. She remembered what had happened the past spring. She knew that the four involved had formed a pretty tight bond. The news seemed to know everything, even that Lizz and Nick had continued to talk nearly every day. Now she was going to have to wake up and not only were both Nick and Brian in critical condition, but the fourth one involved was still missing. Sheila knew that this girl, Kyung, was Lizz’s best friend.

Her thoughts drifted to the other two patients up on 8. She wanted to call up and see how they were. Just as she started to leave the room, Lizz moaned. The sound was almost missed as it was muffled by the ventilator. Sheila immediately went to her side. Lizz’s eyes were darting around the room and she looked very scared and very alone. Sheila didn’t know how to relay the news that would only worsen those feelings.

~*~*~*~*~

Kyung woke up, unable to move. She started to panic, but then realized it was because she was tied down. The room she was in was dark, but not pitch black. After giving herself a few minutes to let her eyes adjust, she was able to determine that she was in a hole in the wall motel. And she was alone. She was in one of those recliner chairs with handcuffs and even torn sheets to tie her down. She was mildly disoriented, but she forced herself to clear her mind as much as possible. Then everything came flooding back to her. Dale dragging her away from Nick and Lizz. The last thing she remembered was being shoved through the snow as Lizz lie there not breathing, Nick bleeding to death, and Brian watching the whole thing, but unable to do anything to stop it. Kyung’s eyes filled with tears as she imagined that there was a good chance that any one of them might not have made it. It was likely that the helicopters didn’t make it in time.

“Ah, it’s nice to see you finally awake.” Marcus grinned at her as he stepped into the room.

“Where are we? What the hell is going on?” Kung whispered.

“Oh, not a whole lot. Let’s see, unfortunately none of them are dead yet. They are hovering though. All three of them could kick off at any time.” He smirked.

Kyung’s mild relief of hearing that they were alive changed to dismay when Marcus mentioned their condition. She was shocked at the change in his demeanor. It wasn’t too long ago that he was freaking out about them dying, but now he was back to being flippant about it.

“What else? Oh, Terri is paralyzed.” His expression suddenly turned bitter.

“Good.” Kyung snapped.

Marcus slapped her across the face without thinking twice. “Well I wouldn’t be too pleased. Carter is having charges pressed against him for it.”

“What?! That is ridiculous. He was defending Lizz!” Kyung cried, her cheek burning from the slap.

“Oh it gets better. Lizz is going to go down for Kurt’s death. See, he had the belt wrapped around his neck and it is being said that she strangled him. Isn’t that a hoot?!” Marcus laughed.

Kyung shook her head slowly. “That isn’t possible. They can’t prove that.”

“Oh yeah? My uncle is one of the best lawyers around and he is already on the case.” Marcus retorted smugly. “His colleague, with almost a perfect record also, is on Carter’s case.”

Kyung wanted to scream at him that he was lying, but the look in Marcus’ eyes told her it was the truth.

“Oh it get’s better. We’ve got the families involved now too. We have gotten in to contact with all of them and they have been instructed not to go anywhere near the hosptial that your friends are in. If they do, you die. They don’t really have a choice in the matter. This is really going to be hard for your friends ya know? They are practically dying and they can’t even have their families there to comfort them. They are all alone and it is all your fault. Don’t you feel like shit now?” Marcus gloated at her.

Kyung didn’t respond, only closed her eyes and let the endless river of tears flow.

AJ hurried down the hallway of the 8th floor of the hospital. The guys had gotten a phone call an hour earlier advising them that the doctor would be taking Nick out of the drug induced coma he had been placed in a week ago. Knowing that the police officers were anxious to talk to Nick as well, AJ wanted to make sure he was there to protect Nick’s interests.

Upon entering the hospital room, AJ’s heart sank. Nick was awake and his bed was surrounded by an assortment of policemen, FBI agents and crash investivgative agents. Nick had a bewildered look on his face.

~*~*~*~

When I woke up, I wasn’t expecting to see what I was seeing. The last thing I remembered was laying in the snow and feeling cold. I couldn’t remember how or why I came to being in the snow. They told me I was shot in the shoulder. I could barely see Brian laing beside me in another bed. They told me he had a belly injury. They wouldn’t tell me anything else. They said something about investigative procedures.

“I told you guys, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said softly. I was suprised at how weak and hoarse my voice sounded.

“Mr. Carter, can you tell me who your kidnappers are or how many there are?”

I tried to think, I was so confused as to who was and who wasn’t the kidnappers. I closed my eyes and sighed loudly, hoping they would take the hint and leave me alone for awhile.

“Okay then, do you recall throwing a rock at somebody?”

“HEY! LEAVE HIM THE HELL ALONE!” AJ barked.

I opened my eyes and was never any happier than what I was right now when I saw AJ rushing into the room.

“He isn’t gonna speak until his attorney is present,” AJ stated, standing between Nick and the investigative officers.

“Fine,” a tall red haired man in a business suit replied. “We are stationing an officer out in the hall.”

“They already have all the protection they need,” AJ hissed.

“Oh, the protection wasn’t to keep people from coming into the room. It’s for keeping Mr. Carter from leaving the room,” the red headed detective smiled.

“What the hell are you implying by that? For god’s sakes he just came out of a freakin coma! I’m sure Nick’s not going anywhere!” AJ spat.

“He is a suspect.”

“A suspect for what?”

“Intent to cause bodily harm not less than murder,” the red haired officer stated crisply.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “What do you mean?”

“Nick, don’t say anything, just keep your mouth shut,” AJ advised.

~*~*~*~*~

Lizz woke up to unbearable pain in her back. She restlessly moved her head from side to side, trying to get comfortable. Her nurse softly rubbed her shoulder.

“Lizz honey, where does it bother you? Where are you hurting?”

Unable to speak because of the tubing in her throat, Lizz gestured towards her back. She was upset that she couldn’t communicate and pointed weakly towards the tubing in her mouth.

“I’m sorry, I’ll check with Dr. McMasters and see if he will issue orders for it to be removed.”

Relieved that something would be done about the tube, Lizz closed her eyes momentarily. A sharp stab of pain hit her and her eyes flew wide open. Her nurse was busy about with the several IV’s that were hanging on the pole and she had a syringe in her hand, getting ready to administer something into her IV.

The nurse caught the look in Lizz’s eyes. “It’s morphine for the pain dear.”

As the medication was flowing into her veins, Lizz suddenly felt warm and calm. Sleep eventually won over and her world once again went dark.

~*~*~*~

“Okay Miss Miller, we need to speak with you again about the details for your accident,” a short, dark skinned police officer stated.

Terri psyched herself up for an act of being upset and appear distressed about the accident.

“It’s awfully hard to go through this again,” she tearfully started out.

“It’s alright honey, do the best that you can,” Agnes coached.

Terri swallowed hard, sorting through her thoughts before she began.

“Well, um, it was in the morning and he became really moody for some reason.”

“Who is this he person?” The officer interrupted.

“Oh, sorry, Nick... Nick Carter became really moody. I was starting to get used to his mood swings, I think he’s like a manic depressive or something cause he was always taking some pills and stuff but he would just get really violent and start swearing and stuff.

Another office was furiously scribbling down notes while Terri spoke.

“Please, keep going.”

Terri nodded.

“Mommy, I’d like a sip of ice water please,” she asked sweetly. Agnes dutifully placed the cup with a straw in her lips.

“So sorry about that,” Terri apologized. “Well, I think I said something Nick didn’t like because he started to swear and I walked away because I didn’t want to get hit by him again....”

“He physically hit you?”

“Oh yeah, see this bruise on this arm here?” Terri lifted the sleeve of her gown, revealing a grapefruit sized, purple bruise that had happened from the plane crash. “I got this when Nick shoved me against a wall.” Terri managed to choke back a sob and Agnes immediately rubbed her daughter’s shoulder and smoothed hair away from her face.

“Are you okay to go on with this, Terri, dear?”

Terri nodded. “I turned to leave and then I felt the rock hit me and everything went numb from my chest down and it hasn’t come back.”

“Did he say anything after that happened?”

Terri nodded. “Oh, it’s so awful, I don’t want to Mommy,” Terri lied.

“It’s okay sweetheart,” Agnes coached.

“No, mommy, I can’t,” Terri lied again.

“I will then because it needs to be told. Nick Carter smiled and said to her, ‘I was aiming for your head, bitch, you’re lucky I was distracted.’

Terri forced herself to cry into fitful sobs.

~*~*~*~

Marcus had been arguing with Dale about their next move for over an hour. Kyung wished she could block the conversation out. She was worried about Lizz and prayed that she would be getting the medical attention she needed. The way Dale and Marcus had talked, Lizz was dying and it was going to be all Kyung’s fault.

Kyung moved her arms, trying to loosen the heavy tape that bound her wrists together. She knew her skin was raw and each move she made sent jolts of pain towards her shoulders.

“We just wait it out, Marus, as soon as the coast is clear Aggie will be giving me the signal on my pager, so just relax. I don’t want to have to explain it to you again, boy,” Dale huffed.

Marcus glared at Kyung. “If it wasn’t for your sorry ass, I would be sitting in my warm house, but NO, you have to ruin this for everyone involved here.”

Kyung jutted her chin out defiantly. “I’m so happy I’ve inconvenienced you.”

Marcus glared and then slapped Kyung’s face with the back of his hand. “I don’t like your insolent tone!”

Kyung gasped when his hand made contact. The tears welled up in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

I kept hearing voices fading in and out like a bad radio transmission. I still felt like I was half out of it and I wasn’t sure I really wanted to be with it. Every time I was awake, I was overwhelmed with pain from some part of my body. If I could, I would have had no qualms about cutting off everything below the neck. But even my face hurt so that was no good. My nurse said that I had to get stitches on that gash over my eye. Nice.

“Hey look she’s waking up.”

“God, it almost hurts me to look at her.”

I know it couldn’t have been, but it sounded like one of them was snickering. I forced myself to open my eyes. At the foot of my bed stood two men in business suits. The one on the left side was tall. Way over six feet. He might have been good looking if he didn’t look so cold. The one next to him was just a just barely shorter and had jet black hair. Unbelievably, he was smirking. His eyes scanned over me and the smirk seemed to grow wider.

“Looks like Carter got to you too, huh?” He snickered softly.

What the hell did he mean by that?! I wanted to ask him, but the vent was still down my throat. Who the hell were these people? They were very intimidating and I know I should feel safe in a hospital, but these creeps were making me very nervous.

“Nice to see you are awake, Miss Hulford. Lizz right? So, Lizz, I see that you are unable to communicate verbally.” The black-haired, smirking guy started, not wasting any time.

Duh! Dumbass. I wanted them out of my room, but the call button was out of my reach. I know for a fact it wasn’t over on my bedside table earlier.

“How about you answer me by blinking twice for yes and once for no.” He continued.

I was starting to shake. Where was everyone?! Why didn’t someone get these guys out of here? The taller guy followed my gaze to the call button.

“After you answer some questions...”

“Now, does the name Kurtis Sloan ring a bell with you?” Second guy asked.

My eyes darted around the room helplessly. I wanted them to leave.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?!”

All eyes were focused on the guy standing in my doorway. He had a white lab coat on and had a stethoscope around his neck.

“Who are you?” The tall guy snapped.

“I’m her doctor, Doug McMasters. Who are you?” He shot back.

“I’m David Bord and this is my colleague, Jason Whise. We represent Terri Miller. We need to ask Miss Hulford some questions regarding her involvement in the death of Kurtis Sloan.” The tall guy, David, replied hotly.

My involvement?! What did he mean by that?

The doctor looked at his visibly shaken patient. “Well she isn’t in any condition to be answering any questions.” Dr. McMasters barked. “I suggest you leave before I call security.”

“Fine, we’ll talk again Miss Hulford.” Jason gave me that smug smile again as they exited the room.

“Asses.” Dr. McMasters stared out the door after them. After a moment he turned back to me. “Well.”

I studied him carefully. He was young, but he carried himself with confidence. He sort of reminded me of George Clooney on “ER.” I liked him already and was grateful to him for kicking those men out of my room.

“Yeah, yeah, I know what you are thinking. Just call me Dr. Ross.” He stopped and laughed. “I get it all the time. ‘Ohmigosh you look like that guy on ER’ Well we have the same first name anyway. I’ll be Doug Ross instead of Doug McMasters.”

I had to smile at that. He had a good bedside manner. It helped set me at ease. After he listened to me with the stethoscope and basically checked me over, I made motions towards the vent. I wanted it out.

“I knew that was coming. Let me set up the oxygen here and we’ll take that out for ya.” He fiddled with the oxygen that came out of the fixture on the wall and came back over to my side. “This is going to be tough because your lungs are pretty weak. One of your broken ribs punctured it more than once. I’m sure you know the routine. Blow out your candles nice and easy.” He instructed.

He swiftly, but gently pulled it out and I coughed and gagged on it. For a very frightening moment I couldn’t get any air, but then Dr. McMasters put an oxygen mask over my face and nose. It helped. After a few moments I was breathing a little more evenly so I tried to use my voice. It came out scratchy, raw and barely audible.

“What...did they...mean?”

“I don’t know sweetheart, but I wouldn’t let them corner you into a room by yourself like they just did.” He advised.

I nodded. The pain was starting to catch up with me again, but I had one last request. “Can you find out if my friends are okay?” It was a lot to get out all at once and I was proud that I did. He had to lean in to hear my pathetic voice though.

He glanced at me, then the clock, then back at me again, then he puffed out his cheeks and blew his hair off his face. “Okay, tell ya what. I’ve got one more patient to check, then I will go check on them. They are on 8 right?”

I shrugged. No one had told me anything.

“Okay, I’ll figure it out. Either me or someone else will get right back to ya okay?” He promised.

I really liked this guy. I’ve met my share of doctors and I have seen some real idiots. This guy was awesome. There wasn’t many doctors who would take the tie out of their busy schedule to do something like this. Dr. McMasters left and I was alone with my thoughts. That is something I did not like right about now. I didn’t want to have to think about what had just happened. As much as I was concerned about Nick and Brian, I wouldn’t be able to face them. This entire thing was my fault and I didn’t want to look at them hurting like this when it was my fault. And I don’t know if I could have handled seeing Nick after all that had happened. Cause he didn’t remember me, but I know he blamed me. I know that he didn’t mean them. He couldn’t have. But those words he flung at me about Brian.

“You kidnapped me??”

“I swear to you, you’re going to pay.”

“This is your fault and you had better stay far far away from him.”

I couldn’t face him. My eyes filled with tears and I felt really alone. Where was my family? Then it dawned on me. Where was Kyung? Miraculously she had escaped most of everything without serious injury so she shouldn’t be in here too. Not as a patient. Where was she?! My sudden change in mood seemed to amplify my pain and I hit the call button.

~*~*~*~*~

True to his word, Dr. McMasters went to find out how Lizz’s friends were. He didn’t know much about the situation until he had found Lizz’s nurse, Sheila. She told him all that she knew, including that two of the kidnappers were still at large and one of the victims was still missing. The eighth floor was absolutely full of people. People in business suits and police officers. Then there were more people trying to get those people out of there. Dr. McMasters shoved his way through them, ignoring the question that they fired at him.

He pushed open the door to 802. He vaguely recognized the two patients and also the other three guys that were in there. Both patients were asleep and the other three looked exhausted, worried, and slightly pissed off.

“Ahem.” He cleared his throat.

~*~*~*~*~

Terri and her mother were finally alone now. Terri was grinning a mile wide. After her marvelous performance of twisting the events that led to her paralysis, she had fabricated another story of how Lizz brutally killed her boyfriend. Her two attorneys assured them both that they had an excellent case going.

“Sweetie, you did so great. I almost believed you myself. They are going to suffer just like you did.” Agnes reassured Terri.

“Good.” Terri had even forgotten that she was paralyzed for a few moments, she was so happy about making her enemies go down too.

Suddenly the door burst open and David Bord marched in the room. He had a piece of paper and he was waving it around. “What the hell is this?! You never mentioned this! As your attorney, I need to know everything. Damnit!” David exclaimed.

Agnes held her hand out for the paper and sucked in a breath when she saw what it was.

"Do not worry, Brian and Nick are fine. Their friends Kyung and Lizz are with them as well. I got screwed over once and it won't happen again. This is not a demand for money, this is just a letter to let you know that they will be staying with me until the paper meets my demands."

It was Terri’s letter that was sent to the National Enquiror.

~*~*~*~*~

Kyung was exhausted, but she refused to let herself sleep. Dale had left about twenty minutes ago to call his wife back from a pay phone. Marcus was asleep on one of the beds and was snoring loudly. Kyung wanted to scream at him to shut up, but didn’t dare.

“MARCUS! GET UP!” Dale burst in the room, his face red with anger.

Marcus jumped and sat up, glaring at his father with sleep-filled eyes. “What the hell, pa?”

“We just got screwed over bad by your mother and darling little sister!” Dale hollered.

Kyung watched with interest, but also in fear. Dale was a loose cannon waiting to go off.

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Marcus demanded.

“They found Terri’s ransom letter and they put two and two together that we were the kidnappers. That Terri and your mom were involved. Well get this! They are telling everyone that we kidnapped these four idiots plus them too. You and I kidnapped Terri and your mother! So then, all events continue the way it was, only they were victimized also. ‘It was the perfect plan. My husband said everyone would suspect it was Terri because of what happened last spring. So of course Nick and his friends were bitter at my Terri and that is why Nick paralyzed her and Lizz killed her boyfriend.’ BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT!” Dale screamed.

Marcus stared at his father in shock. “Terri is going along with this too?”

“Oh yeah.” Dale laughed bitterly. “Ag convinced her that ‘her daddy and big brother left her there to die.’ You know how easily manipulated she is by her mother. We need to get out of here before the cops get here.”

“What about her?” Marcus jerked his head towards Kyung.

“She comes too. She can be our safety. Who’s gonna touch us when we’ve got a hostage?”

***

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