Doubt
Part 4
“Hehehe, like okay Nick.”
I mocked myself in a ditsy voice as Nick disappeared into the bathroom. How
obvious was I? He probably went in there either laughing at me or thinking I am
a total spaz. Ugh, this was so toturous!
I flopped down on my bed
and proceeded to flip the channels. The noise in the hallway died down, much to
my relief. Even though nothing came out of that stupid letter board, I was
still a little uneasy. I hated that wacked out family for making me so paranoid
and untrusting. I’ve always been the type to look for the best in people no
matter what. I still do that, but it’s not the same. There are now a small
handful of people that I would just as soon kill them as look at them. A chill
came over my body when I realized that I actually had killed one of them.
I committed murder. That
haunted me day and night. Never a dream went by without that gruesome death
scene playing over in my head. As much as that tore me up inside, if it came
down to it again and a gun was being held at Nick, I would kill again.
“AHHHHHH, SON OF A BITCH!!!”
I jumped at the horrific
sound of Nick’s screams. I raced to the door, my heart pounding. “Nick! NICK!”
I called frantically, throwing the door open. Nick stood outside the shower,
hastily wrapping a towel around his waist, dripping wet and visibly shaken.
“What? What happened?!” I
cried, grabbing his arm.
He didn’t say a word, but
pulled the shower curtain back, barely holding the edge of it with two fingers.
“Oh my god!” I croaked,
backing away. The floor of the shower was crawling with black spiders.
“Those-those…” I stuttered.
“Were in that bottle of
‘bath soap.’ God, Lizz, I shoulda listened to you and gotten rid of it. I
opened the bottle and went to dump it in my hand and they just poured out.” He
shuddered and I wrapped my arms around him. Despite the grim circumstances I
couldn’t help but notice that he was only wearing a towel. Then the spiders
flashed across my mind and I pulled away.
“Can we get outta here?”
I nodded to the shower.
“Gladly.” He agreed. Out
in the room, he started rummaging through his back for some clothes.
“Nick, do we need to wash
them down the drain? I don’t want them coming in here.” I grimaced at the
thought of spiders crawling on me in my sleep.
“We’ll get detail to do
it. As soon as I get dressed…” He gave me a pointed look.
“Oh!” I turned around, my
face heating up. But how ludicrous was that? With what just happened, how could
I be thinking things like that? Easy, I was scared and was trying to avoid
thinking about it. "Are you sure it was a 14 year-old girl?" I asked,
hugging my knees to my chest.
"Come to think of
it, no. A camera went off right before I was handed the package. I couldn't see
jack shit. Thw whole time...okay...I was out there, cameras were going off so I
never saw anyone." He interrupted himself, giving me the okay to turn back
around.
"There's no way this
is a coincidence too. Nick, you know that." I said, my eyes trailing back
towards the bathroom,. I did not want to see any spiders come crawling
out from under that door.
Nick came over and sat
down by me. "Agnes may have escaped, but she wouldn't have tracked us down
by herself and done all this on her own. If this is her, and we don't know
that, she still can't get close to us. The letter board was dropped off and
that," he nodded towards the bathroom, "could have been given to
someone else to give to me. There is no way she can get close enough to us to
hurt us. We'll just have to be extra careful with gifts and stuff." He
reassured me.
I nodded, feeling a
little better. "Should we tell the others?"
"I don't think so,
it would just freak them out. Especially Brian. That board really shook him up
and I don't want to add to it. I just want him to keep focusing on getting
better." Nick said emphatically.
"Yeah, you're right.
About cleaning that up though..." I grimaced.
Nick shook his head.
"Detail."
I breathed a sigh of
relief. "I hate the idea of showering in there again. I mean, spiders
don't really freak me out, but that is a little much for me."
"Well, I could go in
there with ya to protect ya." Nick grinned playfully.
I blushed. "Aren't
we the funny one!" I smacked him on the arm for good measure, hoping he
missed my grin. Shame on me for such thoughts! Then I remembered what he had
said earlier. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"
I turned around,
surprised to see him on the phone already, probably calling detail. I guess he
didn't hear what I had asked. Ah well, later.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Nick,
I’m booooorredd.” I sing-songed as I paced the floor.
“Lizz! Don’t even go there, look what happened last time you got bored!” Nick
exclaimed, setting his Sports Illustrated down. “Besides, how can you be bored?
We’ve been running our asses around all damn day. Sit down, you’re wearing me
out!” He flashed me an exasperated smile.
Today was another one of those early days. I woke up to Nick shaking me,
telling me to get up or I would have to leave the hotel room looking like I
did. That was enough for me. There were way too many people out there to see me
in my boxers and tee shirt, not to mention totally disheveled hair. It was a
long day and it wasn’t even close to being over. The guys made another TV
appearance (no bad gifts this time, thank God), a photo op, and a couple of
those mini interviews that I know Nick hates. Now we were back in the hotel
until it was time to go to the venue. I smiled to myself just thinking about
it. Nick assured me that I would get tired of seeing the show over and over,
but I knew I wouldn’t. I loved watching them perform and that was something I would
never get tired of.“Okay, I’m hungry then.” I stopped and flopped down on
Nick’s bed.
“We’re gonna eat at the venue. We’re leaving at
“Ni-iick! That’s almost an hour away from now!” I pouted, batting my eyelashes.
Okay, normally I hated them because they were always hitting the back of my
sunglasses, but sometimes they came in handy.
He laughed. “Order room service then, piggy.”
“Hey! Just for that, I’m not sharing.” I paused. “Okay, I’ve stayed in a ton of
hotels, but I have never ordered room service. Do I, uh…”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Allow me. Grilled cheese okay?”
“Perfect. Not too heavy, but it will hold me over till the banquet.” I grinned,
watching him dial room service. “Thank you, maybe I’ll share.”
“You better.” He grumbled, hidden back behind the magazine. I could tell he was
smiling though.
I wandered aimlessly around the room, waiting impatiently for my food. The
window shades were pulled, but I snuck a careful peek around the curtain. The
sky was not only dark, but lightning flashed off the distance. I smiled
inwardly. Storms were my all time favorite kind of weather and I had to push
back the urge to go chase it. Old habits die hard…My stomach growled, and I looked
quickly at Nick to see if he had heard. Thankfully, he was too engrossed in the
magazine to notice. A quick knock at the door got my attention and I hurried to
the door. I had my hand on the handle, ready to whip it open when I thought of
something. “Uh, Nick, we tip right?”
He snickered. “Yes, Lizz, always. Money’s on top of the TV.”
“Right.” I nodded, grabbing some bills. But when I opened the door, no one was
there. In fact, the hallway was totally empty.
“You forgot your tip, dumbass.” I muttered, kneeling down to pick up the tray
that was on the doorstep. Somehow I thought the service would be a little
better at a hotel like this. Oh well, I had my food, that’s all I cared about.
Even though I was just bringing it back into the room, I couldn’t help myself
as I lifted the lid on the plate. “AHHHH!” I screamed, jumping back, only to
lose my balance and landing on my butt. The lid clattered to the floor and I
looked frantically up and down the hall. “NICK!!”
“Lizz?! What is it??!” Nick rushed up behind me. I felt him kneel down and take
my shoulders. I lifted a shaky hand to the tray in front of me. Instead of my
grilled cheese sandwich, two bloody rats laid on top of the bread. A note,
written in what looked like blood, wrote, “YOU WILL DIE LIKE THE RATS YOU ARE!”
“What the fuck?!” Nick hollered. “WHERE ARE YOU, YOU BASTARDS?!”
Several doors flew open.
“Nick? Lizz?” Brian rushed out of his room. When his eyes fell on the rats, he
paled.
“What the hell kinda prank is that?!” AJ demanded, glaring at us.
“It wasn’t a prank AJ!” I cried. We ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and when
I opened the door, no one was here and this was on the floor.”
“Lizz, are you sure you didn’t see anyone?” Kevin asked, his face a mixture of
anger and…more anger.
I shook my head. “The hall was totally empty.”
“This shit is not going to keep happening!” Kevin seethed.
“God, that’s so gross.” I stared at the rats. “I can’t believe they would even
want to touch those.” I was starting to breathe a little more normal now. The
fact that Nick stayed next to me, reassured me. “It’s okay though, right? I
mean, she was here, but we’re all okay. She can’t do anything to us now and now
detail is gonna be all over the place so we’ll be safe right?” I asked, trying
to convince myself.
“No one is getting close to us.” Nick said in a low voice.
I sighed. We were all sort of hovering in front of Nick and I’s door. I wasn’t
sure why, but I guess maybe we felt safer all together. At least I felt that
way. “Well, I know this is going to sound gross after our little rat meal, but
I’m still hungry.” I offered a tentative smile, trying to lighten the
atmosphere.
“Please tell me you are joking, Lizz.” Brian groaned.
“Hey, you are talking to the girl with the iron stomach.” I joked.
“Good you are a perfect match for dumbass, then.” AJ quipped.
“Hey.” Nick protested. “You sure you don’t want the sandwich, Lizzard?”
“Yeah, a rat sandwich doesn’t quite do it for me.” I laughed. Even though I was
still mildly shaken, I wasn’t going to let it get to me. I was perfectly safe
here with the guys. No one was going to even get near us, not now. This was
just another sick joke to scare us.
“How about rat soup?” Offered Howie, a smiling forming.
“Howie!” Brian exclaimed, disgusted.
“Rat pot-pie?” Nick added, laughing at the green tint that was forming on
Brian.
“Guys, come on, that’s sick.” He complained.
“Well, I’ve had rat pie.” Kevin informed us, his face deadpan. We all stared at
him in shock. “Yeah, it was about 4 years ago, somewhere over in
“Kevin, you’re kidding. Right?” Brian stared up at his older cousin, a look of
pure horror twisting his features.
“Yes, I’m kidding. Now enough of the rat-talk. We need to deal with this mess.”
Kevin shook his head at our gullibleness. I cracked up, just picturing it. Nick
was laughing too and despite the circumstances, I felt a lot calmer. Agnes
could scare us all she wanted, but she wasn’t going to get close enough to us
to hurt us.
Suddenly, without warning, we were plunged into darkness. Being in the middle
of the hallway, where there weren’t any windows, it was pitch black.
“What the hell?” I exclaimed, alarmed.
“Shit.” Nick said softly.
“Okay this isn’t cool.” AJ groused.
“It’s probably just the storm. The lights will come back on in a second here.”
Kevin reassured us.
I shuddered in the darkness. I didn’t like this at all. I felt a hand graze
across my cheek and I jumped. “Nick! Don’t do that!” I yelped.
“What?”
“You- you touched my cheek.” I stammered, suddenly feeling sick.
“I didn’t…” He trailed off as the lights came back on. It was just the six of
us, but now other doors were opening all down the hallway. “Oh god…” He stared
in horror at me.
“What?” I whispered. They were all starting at me, totally horrified. My cheek
felt sticky. “What is it?” I cried, starting to tremble.
“Lizz…” Nick started. His eyes scared me. He looked angry and scared at the
same time. He started to move towards me, slowly as if afraid I was going to
flip out.Slowly, I reached my hand up to my cheek. It was met with a cold,
sticky substance and my stomach twisted. My heart started racing and I felt the
panic rise. My eyes flickered around the hallway before settling on the hand
that I had held out in front of my eyes. It was covered in blood.
*~*~*~*~*
I couldn’t help but lay on the bed and wonder as I stared at a sleeping Lizz as
the tour bus sped down some highway towards
My two way beeped and I glanced at the name in the screen. Dumbass.
I sighed, debating if whether I really wanted to talk to AJ right now or not.
He kept beeping so I decided I better answer or Lizz would wake up.
“Yeah?” I answered as I stood up and walked towards the front to the living
quarters.
“So have you said anything to her yet?”
I rolled my eyes and groaned inwardly. Why was AJ so committed into finding out
about my personal life? “What does it matter to you?”
“Ah, so you didn’t say anything, god Carter, I swear you’re such a coward!”
“I am not,” I defended, feeling the heat rise to my face.
“Then just tell her!”
“AJ, this conversation is done, bye,” I replied and with the same motion, shut
the phone off. I knew he would keep it up until I either caved in or gave him
the answer he was waiting for. God, you would think he was my dad or something.
I decided that I would have to do something, suck it up and confront Lizz with
my feelings. The groundwork had been laid, so-to-speak, but I was such a
coward, I was afraid that if I told her my feelings she would laugh at me or
reject me. I don’t think I could stand that. If I read what had happened in
that vending machine room before AJ interrupted us, we were going to kiss, at
least I think she wanted me to kiss her.
“God Carter, it’s something so simple, why do I have to keep making it so
fucking hard?”
“Make what so hard?”
I spun around to see a disheveled looking Lizz, hair all touseled, sleep still
in her eyes, cheeks pink.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” I lied, unable to confront my feelings yet.
“You are a bad liar Nick, you know that. Tell me what’s wrong,” Lizz asked as
she plopped down onto the couch, patting the cushion next to her. “Maybe I can
help you.”
“Hey did you see the look on Brian’s face the other day during lunch?”
“Nice try in changing the subject. Come on, don’t shut me out, something’s
bugging you and I want to help, I’m a good listener.”
I turned my back to her as I walked towards the windows and peered out from
under a mini blind. “I doubt you can help when it involves you.”
I was expecting her to say something to me, but I was met with dead silence. I
turned around to see her sitting there, her face ashen, tears in her eyes. I
suddenly realized that I did what I was so good at doing: saying one thing and
meaning something completely opposite than what had been said.
“Oh, shit, no Lizz, it’s nothing bad, please don’t cry!”
"Did I say something to hurt you? Embarrass you?"
"NO, god, please listen to me, there's something I've been wanting to tell
you, but I've been too much of a wuss to come right out and say it," I
grasped at words, hoping this time I was making sense.
"Okay," came the quite reply.
I suddenly realized that I was spinning my tires and digging myself into a deep
hole. Lizz was never this quiet unless she had her feelings hurt. I must have
hurt her feelings or she was being guarded about her feelings. 'Nick you have
to stop analyzing her moods, just tell her, dammit,' I mentally coached myself.
"Okay, how long have you and I known each other? A year? Two years?"
"One year and eighteen months," came the reply, this time she was
grinning. Thank god she was grinning.
I nervously smiled back at her.
"Okay, during that one year and eighteen months," she giggled
at my emphasis of the eighteen months. "Do you think we've gotten to know
each other pretty good?"
"Yes, because I know how to piss you off pretty good and you know how to
definately piss me off," Lizz teased.
"Besides that," I began again as I sat on the cushion next to her.
"Well, yeah, I think I've really gotten to know you pretty good. The real
Nick Carter versus the media fabricated Nick Carter, and I really like the real
Nick dispite the moodiness and you being grumpy," she smiled.
"I really like your bitchiness," I smirked and then smacked her with
a throw pillow for good measure.
"HEY, you are going to so pay for that one, Carter!"
"Oooooh, I'm so scared," I mocked.
A brief pillow fight ensued, too brief for my liking because it was buying me
time to tell her my true feelings. I was still scared of rejection.
"CRASH"
"Oh shit, that wasn't something valuable, was it?" Lizz asked
sheepishly.
"Nope," I replied as I took the pillow and pushed it into her face.
"Nick!"
I froze when I realized I was probably suffocating her to death. That was
probably not a good idea since her lungs were still a little compromised from
the transplant.
"Lizz, I love you," I blurted.
She was gasping for air momentairly and then her eyes focused on mine.
"What did you say? I'm sorry I didn't here you."
Figures, I get the balls to tell her and she didn't hear me again.
I took a deep breath and willed the courage again. "Lizz, I'm in...."
The lurching of the bus threw me against her tiny body. When the sound of
squealing tires and crunching metal hit our ears, our eyes locked and I
instinctively threw my arms around her to protect her.
"Hold on," I yelled.
She didn't get the chance to answer me, the next thing I knew, something hard
came down on my head and everything stopped.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Nick!” I screamed as I
watched his eyes roll back into his head. His grip on me loosened so I held on
tighter, determined to keep us together. The bus was fishtailing and I knew we
were out of control. Suddenly, almost as if someone had pushed the slow-motion
button on their VCR, all movement ceased. In a split second, the bus started to
tip. Nick and I were thrown roughly to the floor and my desperate grip on him
was torn away. Stuff was being thrown everywhere, hitting me and probably Nick
in the process.
I landed hard and the
impact knocked the wind out of me. I laid face up, unmoving on the floor of the
bus. Only thing was, windows were straight above me. That would mean we had
tipped over and I was actually laying on the side of the bus, right? “Nick?” I
called, disappointed in my weak voice. I started to roll over, letting out a
sharp gasp as my broken body protested to the movement. “God...” I murmured.
What the hell happened? My eyes widened as I took in the surroundings. It
looked like a tornado had blown through, wrecking havoc on everything it
touched. Furniture was overturned and broken. Cabinet doors were open and
shattered dishes were scattered about. I forced myself to sit up, groaning
softly. Shit! Nick! Why couldn’t I think straight??
I very quickly noticed
the left arm of my dark sweatshirt was soaked in blood. Slowly, I crawled over
to Nick. Putting any weight on it was out of the question. It hurt like a
bitch. I pulled the neck of my sweatshirt away to try to steal a peek of the
injury. Okay, that’s pretty...About three inches below my shoulder was a pretty
little gash. Nick was laying prone, a few feet away from me. From what I could
tell, he was unconscious.
“Nick, honey, open your
eyes.” I coaxed, trying to fight the panic that was building. I needed to stay
calm. There was a nasty cut on his forehead and it was bleeding freely. I
grabbed a kitchen towel and pushed it up against his head. I’d hoped the
pressure would get him to wake up, but he didn’t even stir. Even in my clouded
mind, I realized that we were in trouble if I didn’t think quick. “Nicky,
sweetheart, I’m going to go try to get help. I’ll be right back okay? I love
you.”
I crawled over to an
overturned table, using one of the legs to pull myself up. ‘Okay, just take it
slow.’ I coaxed myself. I staggered over to the door and was surprised to be
faced with floor of the bus. I looked up, gasping as a wave of dizziness washed
over me. The door was above my head, along with a row of windows, but there was
no way I could pull myself through one of them with my arm hurt like it was.
Maybe, oh no...
“Dave?” I yelped, rushing
over to our bus driver. He was laying sideways in his seat, the seat belt
having prevented him from going anywhere. I held a shaky hand out, almost
afraid to touch him. I took a deep breath and felt the side of his neck for a
pulse. When I felt a steady beat, I sighed with relief. Unfortunately, he was
unconscious as well.
It was gonna have to be
one of the windows above my head. I went back to the table that I had used
before and turned it right side up. Slowly, and nervously I climbed on top of
it. To my relief, the window was a lot closer to me than I had thought. Fueled
by pure adrenaline, I pulled myself as carefully as I could through the broken
window, wary of the shards of broken glass that rimmed the edge. If any of it
cut me, and it probably did, I was too much in shock to feel it. As it was, it
felt like the accident had happened hours ago when I knew it had only been a
couple minutes.
Now on top of the bus, my
only choice was to just jump off. I took a deep breath and jumped, hitting the
ground hard and dropping to my knees. Shakily I stood back up. The sun was
setting and the sky was rapidly growing dark. In the distance I could see one
of the other guys’ buses.
“Oh god, dont leave.” I
whimpered.
Almost as if they heard,
the brake lights lit up and the bus started slowing down. They were just going
to turn around, thank God. I had no idea who had been ahead of us and I didn’t
care. Nick’s bus had been last cause when we had stopped at a fast food joint a
few hours ago, we took the longest.
The noise of an oncoming
car caught my attention and I whirled around. A white panel van had appeared
out of nowhere. I waved my good arm frantically at them as they approached, my
desperation starting to get overwhelming. The van came to a stop right next to
me and my stomach clenched. There was suddenly something about this van that
made me very uneasy. Probably just cause panel vans had a bad rep. Kidnappers
used them because they were perfect for hiding in and keeping their victims
from being seen. The door flew open and a man jumped out.
“Please help us! Our bus
crashed and my friend is hurt. So is the driver. Please...” I froze. “Vinnie!”
“That’s right, Lizz.
Remember me?”
“Oh god...” I choked out,
my knees getting weak.
The passenger window
rolled down and another familiar face grinned at me.
“Terri?” I whispered,
unable to believe what I was seeing.
“Time to pay your dues,
bitch. Where’s Carter?” She sneered.
“He must be the one
that’s on the bus, still hurt, right?” Vinnie snickered. I only stared at him
in horror, not comprehending the events that were unfolding before my eyes. A
heard another door open and moments later, Agnes appeared from around the other
side of the van.
“Well, well. Lizz, don’t
look so shocked. You knew you would never be rid of us didn’t you?” She
laughed. I could only stand there and shift my gaze across their faces. I was
totally helpless. I couldn’t go anywhere, not with Nick still in the bus. Not
like I would have gotten far anyway. The squealing brakes of bus tires got all
of our attentions. Whoever’s bus I had seen braking only a few minutes ago was
now coming to a stop in front of us. The door flew open and AJ bounded down the
steps.
“No, AJ! Go back!!!” I
screamed.
“Oh no, I think you’ll
keep on coming this way.” Vinnie called out.
AJ stopped in his tracks.
“What the fuck is going on here?!” He demanded.
“AJ RUN! It was them!!
Get help!!!” I cried.
“Shut up!” Agnes whipped
around and raised her hand at me. I shrank back. “Keep it coming, AJ. You
wouldn’t want us to kill her, would you?” She coaxed him.
“Sonofabitch.” He swore
as he walked towards us. I whimpered in despair. Now they were gonna get him
too.
“Perfect, time to get out
of here.” Agnes announced as she looked off in the distance. We followed her
gaze to see the rest of the buses coming.
“Wait! Momma, we need to
get Carter!” Terri whined.
“No! You aren’t fucking
going near him. You’ll have to kill me first.” I growled.
“As if you have a choice
in the matter.” Vinnie sneered.
“Where is he? Is he
okay?” AJ’s attention shot towards the bus, alarm in his voice.
“He’s unconscious, he got
hit in the head. H-he was b-bleeding.” Tears filled my eyes.
“New plan. We’re leaving.
Now.” Agnes announced.
“Momma!” Terri protested.
“Shut up, Terri!” Agnes
barked. She turned to AJ. “Get in the van.”
“Over my dead fu-”
Agnes whipped out a gun.
“Don’t make me say it again.”
“No...” I moaned,
planting my feet. “I’m not leaving Nick.”
Vinnie reached over and
grabbed my arm. I gasped as his fingers snaked around the gash. The pain made
my vision go black for a split second and my knees turned into rubber.
“Aw, whattsa matter? Lizz
got an owie?” He mocked. He jerked me roughly, and I nearly fell. I felt a
rough shove against my back and I tumbled onto the van floor. AJ managed to
partially break my fall and pulled me closer to him. Vinnie hopped in and
pulled the van door shut. Agnes was already starting the ignition.
“Momma, why did we leave
him there? It was our chance!” Terri protested angrily.
“It was not our
perfect chance.” Agnes snapped in return. “Did you not see the other buses
heading this way? It doesn’t matter, this is even better.”
“How?” Terri grumbled.
“We want Carter to suffer
in the worst possible way right? Hurting him isn’t going to make him suffer
nearly as much as hurting his friends. Knowing that they are going through pain
and there isn’t anything he can do to stop it. This is the new plan...”
I looked up at AJ,
fearfully. We were both huddled against the side wall of the van, not daring to
move. Vinnie sat across from us, keeping the gun trained to our faces.
“What did we want from
the beginning? Our money from the National Enquirer. We’re going to take it a
step further now. A kidnapping case is bound to be newsworthy right? We take
some pictures, send them in, get our money. Maybe
after we get sick of that tattooed freak, we could arrange for a trade for that
other one. We’re keeping the bitch though. That way, Carter will do whatever we
want. Finally, of course, in the end, we’ll get Carter and kill him slowly. All
of it will be publicized and we will get our just payments. Then, disappear
into
I felt sick. “You
can’t...” I whispered.
“You fucking psychos! You
will never get away with it!” AJ spat.
Agnes glanced at us in
the rearview mirror. “Oh we will. If the media doesn’t cooperate, you’ll die.
If the Enquirer doesn’t cooperate, you’ll die. If your group doesn’t cooperate,
you’ll die. Either way, Carter dies in the end. I guess the only part up to you
guys is how many people will join him.”
*~*~*~*~*~
"I think he's coming to."
I heard myself moan as I struggled to wake up. The voice sounded so far off in
the distance. My head was pounding, it felt worse than any of the migraines I
had ever had.
"Nick! Come on buddy, wake up!"
Although I wanted to wake up, I felt the need to sleep was more important. I
moaned a reply, hoping that the voice would just leave me alone and let me go
to sleep, but much to my dissatisfaction, the voice was persistent.
And louder.
"Nick, you've been in an accident, you hit your head pretty hard, you can't be sleeping on me right now!"
My eyes sprung open when I finally realized why Brian's voice was so insistent
on my waking up.
I had been in an accident? This didn't make any sense to me at all.
"Huh?"
Brian's eyes locked onto mine. "Nick, your bus crashed, you got hit in the
head, do you remember?"
I closed my eyes for a moment, hoping it would help me to remember, my mind was
a total blank. "No, I don't remember," I replied, surprised at how
weak my voice was.
Suddenly, I realized that I wasn't laying in a hotel room or even on my bus for
that matter. Things were slowly starting to connect.
"We were on our way to
"Where's Lizz?" I interrupted Kevin's slow, detailed description of
the accident.
I could tell by the way Brian and Kevin exchanged glances that this wasn't a
good thing.
"Where is she?" The panic must have shown through my voice.
"Nick, calm down," Brian said in a calm voice.
I started to sit up, ignoring the pounding in my head. I only made it halfway,
Brian and Kevin's hands each pressing back on one of my shoulders.
"Lay back down, the doctor wants you to stay put," Brian stated.
I clenched my jaw. "Where the fuck is she?"
Kevin sighed. "We don't know."
"Wha--"
"Calm down!" Brian urged as he glanced warily towards Kevin.
They were avoiding my question and I was damned if I was going to stick around
waiting for their answers. I tried to sit up again, and again I was met with
their resistance.
"TELL ME NOW!"
"S-h-h-h-h, Nick calm down," Kevin and Brian tried to calm me down at
the same time.
"The only way to tell you anything is if you calm down and let me tell you
from the beginning, alright?" Brian said as his blue eyes focused on me. I
nodded my head, ever-so-slightly, trying to keep the headache from
intensifying. I listened to Brian as he recalled the events that led up to
where we were now, my heart stuck in my throat, fearing the worst possible
scenerios:
"Okay, your bus was roughly ten miles behind mine. AJ's was a little
less than a mile ahead of your bus. Mike got a radio call from AJ's driver,
saying that there was trouble with one your bus and that help was needed and to
turn around."
Brian paused for a moment before he continued.
"When we got there, we found your bus laying on it's side and AJ's bus
stopped on the edge of the road. His driver was laying on the ground roughly
twenty feet from the bus, dead."
I was feeling dizzy, but I willed my head to ignore it, I needed to find out
answers. "How?"
"Mike went to check on the driver and I took off to your bus,"
Brian continued, ignoring my question. "I don't know how I managed it,
maybe it was adrenaline or something, but I got into your bus---"
Brian going on and on about stupid things were more than I could handle. I
interrupted him and asked him point blank, "Where the hell are Lizz and
AJ? Are they okay?"
"I'm getting to that--"
"You're fucking there! Tell me now! Please!"
I don't know if the tears of desperation that flooded my eyes or the look on my
face did it, but Brian finally stopped with the stupid narratives of the
accident and his heroism on the scene.
"We.. we don't know," he replied as he kept eye contact with me.
"What do you mean? You mean you lost them? What? Are they here and you
don't know how they are?"
"Nick.. Nicky settle down," Kevin soothed.
"No, I need to know what's going on, just tell me," I begged, wiping
the tears that had already fallen away from my cheeks.
"We think Lizz and AJ were kidnapped," Kevin stated in a monotoned
voice.
"Fuck.... Agnes," I whispered when I realized what had happened. I
immediately started pulling the IV out of my left hand, tearing the bandage
that was wrapped around my head off.
"Nick, what are you doing, stay still," Brian urged.
"I don't have time to sit in a fucking hospital! We have to find
them!"
"You, buddy, have had a pretty hard hit to your head and you need to be
here for twenty-four hours observation, like it or not," Kevin stated in
an authoritative voice.
"Fuck that noise, I'm outta here," I stated as I shakily stood up and
then fell back onto the bed as my feet disobeyed my intentions.
"Yeah, sure you are. You just need to sit tight and take it easy. You're
no good to Lizz or AJ if we have to babysit your ass when we search for them.
Besides, the FBI are working on it right now, so I'm hoping that they will be
safe and sound by the time you get out of here tomorrow. Now, lay back down and
I'm calling your nurse so you can get your IV put back in and your bandage
fixed."
With that being said, Kevin stood up and calmly walked across the room toward
the door. "Oh, and if you think you'll get a chance to check out before
you're ready, rest assured you won't be getting a chance because Brian or I
will be watching you."
*~*~*~*~*
"Momma, AJ wasn't in my plans, I wanted Carter and only Carter, now we
have this excess baggage that we will have to tend to," Terri moaned as
the van sped down the highway.
"Baby, sometimes things do work out as planned. If that skinny punk hadn't
showed up, things would have been different. This will work out, you'll
see," Agnes grinned as she reassured her daughter.
Vinnie sat across from his hostages, taking pleasure in looking at the two of
them, huddled together on the floor of the panel van.
"Bet you wished you had ran out of your fricken ride with your sunglasses
on, pretty boy," Vinnie taunted.
"You fucking---"
"Ah.. hey we have ladies present!" Vinnie interrupted AJ's comment.
He stood up and backhanded AJ across his face. "I'll have to teach you
some manners."
AJ spit out the blood that flowed when his teeth had connected with the inside
of his cheek and cut it.
"Leave him the fuck alone!" Lizz hissed.
Vinnie rose his hand up ready to strike. "Looks like you need to learn
some manners too, bitch!"
Before he could bring a hand down onto Lizz, AJ kicked Vinnie's feet out from
under him. He landed on the floor of the van, momentarily stunned when the wind
was knocked out of him, gun skidding across the floor towards the seats between
Agnes and Terri.
"Vincent!" Agnes spat, "You concentrait on watching them and
stop playing with them!"
"Well, we wouldn't have this problem if you had waited for me to tie their
asses up," Vinnie defended.
"God, then tie them up, better yet, tie them up and gag them, I can't
stand listening to her whiney voice anymore," Terri suggested.
"Good idea, we have to stop and get some supplies anyway, I have the place
figured out where they are supposed to be staying in
"Don't get any funny ideas yet little man," Vinnie smiled, revealing
the gold cap on his front tooth. "We will be taking care of you very soon
and have pictures to prove it, the blood in your mouth is only the
beginning!"
***
