Chapter
13
AJ’s point of view
"AJ, this is urgent, wake
up!" were the first words I heard when I opened my eyes.
I couldn’t be bothered with Nick after
last night, so I didn’t turn to face him. Instead I closed my eyes again.
"OK, I’m awake!" I grumbled. "What do you want
today!?"
"AJ, did you stick a knife in my mattress last night?"
My eyes immediately snapped open, "WHAT?!"
Nick didn’t reply, so I turned over and looked over to his bed. My
eyes widened as, sure enough, I saw a large kitchen knife standing upright,
with its point dug into the mattress, right next to his exposed throat. Nick
didn’t move an inch due to fear filled panic.
I quickly got up and went over to his bedside.
"God, look at that thing! It’s right next to your neck!"
I exclaimed. "Hey, it’s a good thing you didn’t roll over onto this!"
"Oh, you think!" Nick stated sarcastically. "If
something like this happens again, I swear I’m gonna flip or something!"
My eyes widened as I realised something drastic, "I could
have woken up…. And found you with your throat slit!"
Nick looked at me with terror in his eyes, "AJ, you’re not
helping!!"
"Oh sorry, man!"
I was about to pull the knife out of his mattress but he stopped
me.
"Leave it! It might have prints on or something!" he
exclaimed.
Kevin’s point of view
After Kristin and me both being woken by my cell ringing, I looked at the alarm
clock on the bedside table. Honestly, 7:30am!
The promo interviews began at 10:45am! Yawning, I reached for my
cell phone. There was no way I was getting up now unless I really had to. It
was AJ’s number on my cell.
"AJ, if this isn’t important, I’m hangin up," I stated
calmly as I pressed the answer button.
AJ began to talk nervously, and my eyes widened.
"YOU WHAT?!" I exclaimed, startling both AJ, down the
phone, and Kristin. "OK, stay there, I’ll be right over!"
"What’s wrong?" Kristin asked.
"AJ said someone is trying to threaten or kill Nick!" I
stated.
I tried to stand up, but as my feet were tangled in the bedsheets,
I fell clumsily to the floor.
"Ouch, dammit!" I mumbled.
"Are you OK?" my wife asked. I rubbed my head.
"Sure, no big deal!" I reassured, stumbling to my feet
and grabbing my T-shirt.
After we had all got up and piled into Nick and AJ’s room, with
the police and security, the officers soon discovered there were no prints on
the knife. It scared us, and terrified Nick, when we all saw that the words
‘KEEP AWAY OR ELSE!’ were crudely etched onto the knife blade. We all knew what
this was about, but we made some excuse about fans or stalkers being the
culprit so we didn’t have to mention aliens. When the police and security had
left the room, Nick broke down in tears.
Brian and I quickly went to comfort him.
"Shh…. Calm down, you’re OK!" Brian comforted.
"They’re after me now!" he dismayed. "They’re not
happy about me being with Jen so they’re trying to kill me!"
This brought fresh tears to his eyes.
"Nick, if they wanted to kill you, they would have done that
already!" I stated. "It’s just a warning, man!"
"Warnings can turn to actions if you’re not careful
though," Howie pointed out.
"We’ll need more security to be safe," AJ added.
Nick tried to curl up in a ball in an attempt to protect himself, still shaken
by tears.
"It’s OK, man. Well, take care of you!" I soothed, patting
Nick on the back.
Brian’s point of view
"C’mon Nick, you can’t stay in here forever!" I stated, peering into
his room.
"I’m not going anywhere!" he replied stubbornly.
"Not after what’s just happened!"
I couldn’t force him to come. I would feel the same in his place.
"Look, do you want us to say you aren’t feeling well?"
"Please. I’ll just stay here where its safe," he
answered quietly.
I sighed and left with the others.
The interviews went well, with few problems. I felt bad about
lying to the fans about Nick, but we knew it was vital we didn’t tell the
truth.
When we all got back, Nick was fast asleep. Howie quietly made his
way over to Nick’s bed.
"Poor guy! He musta cried himself to sleep!" he stated,
observing the two tear lines down my best friend’s face.
"We’d better leave him alone for now" I suggested,
sitting down on the couch. The rest of the evening passed by pretty
uneventfully. Howie switched places with AJ for the night, and AJ was grateful
to get away from Nick for a while.
But we were getting two unexpected visitors that night.
***
