Nick
“I’m sorry, I thought I heard you say
that you dreamed about the accident before it actually happened.”
“You heard right.”
“Hmm.” Nick Carter smiled uneasy. “I don’t believe in that shit,
dude.” He turned around, preparing to leave, when he heard Brian yell.
“It’s the truth! I thought that’s what you wanted!”
“It can’t be the truth! It’s ridiculous! AJ was right, you are insane!”
Suddenly he felt something grab his back and before he knew what
hit him, he was shoved against the wall by a very angry looking Brian Littrell.
“Listen you asshole. You asked for the truth. You wanted
to know why I screamed her name last night. I’m giving you
the truth here, man. I’ve never told anyone about this!”
“Yeah, why not?”
“Because they’d think I’m insane.”
“Well, they’d be right. Listen to yourself, dude. You’re not
making any sense! You should go see a doctor.”
“I already am seeing a doctor.”
“She ain’t doing her job right then!”
The punch that followed was surprisingly painful. He didn’t know
Brian had it in him.
“I.
Am. Not. Insane!” But he saw the uncertainty in the shorter man’s
eyes.
“Are you sure about that?”
“As sure as I need to be.”
“Right.”
“Look Nick, I don’t know how to explain it. I just need you to
believe me, to trust me.”
Nick looked at him, he knew it was Brian, but it was like there
was a complete stranger standing in front of him. He shook his head, unable to
believe the impossibilities that this liar had laid out before him. It wasn’t
that he couldn’t believe him, it was just that
he didn’t want to.
“Brian, I’m sorry. I just think you’ve been under too much stress
these past couple of months. I didn’t mean to call you insane.” He turned to
walk away.
“Goddamnit!”
Nick stopped dead in his tracks. He had never heard
Brian curse like that.
“You think this all just a joke?! You think I’m having a great
time here?! I’m not lying, Nick! I wish I was!”
“Yeah? Well, prove it then!”
“What?” Brian stared helplessly at him, the desperation clear in
his eyes. Something is going on
there.
“Prove it! Prove to me that you had those dreams.”
“I can’t…”
“Then it’s not true. Hold on, I’ll just go
call your doctor.”
“NO!”
“Excuse me?”
“No
one can know
about this!” Brian looked around frantically, terrified that someone was
eavesdropping them.
“Then why did you tell me? Huh? Come on, this isn’t funny at all!”
“I didn’t mean to tell you, okay? I didn’t mean to tell you
something like this! I just couldn’t keep it inside anymore! And you asked for
it, remember? Now, I wouldn’t joke about this, would I? Wait, don’t answer
that.” He said when he saw Nick opening his mouth. Brian would joke about anything, well, the old
Brian anyways.
Deep inside Nick knew Brian wasn’t lying. He is a bad liar. But he liked to deny the truth.
It terrified him. Once again he turned to leave.
“Nick, please…” He
stood still, closing his eyes. He didn’t want to hear what Brian had to tell
him. Didn’t want to face what he knew would be the truth. When he turned
around, he saw Brian standing in the middle of the hotel room. Nick had never seen
Brian looking so lost before, so defeated.
“Look, I don’t care if you don’t believe me. Just forget I told
you anything, okay?” Brian walked out of the room into the bathroom, looking
ready to break down and slammed the door behind him.
You unbelievable idiot! What the hell are you doing? He reprimanded himself as he stared at
the closed door. You call yourself his
best friend?
Brian needed Nick to listen to him, to understand him, to trust
him. And he did, but he was afraid. He was scared of Brian’s secret. But that
didn’t matter right now! He knew Brian had told him for a reason, despite what
the singer may have said. Brian hadn’t been able to keep it inside any longer,
had shared the burden with the only person he trusted. He had lost everything
he had lived for, didn’t trust anyone anymore, and Nick had screwed it up. He
had acted like a complete asshole for telling Brian he was insane. That was
certainly not what Brian had wanted to hear. Nick should have been honoured, Brian trusted him enough to share his secret with
him. He had needed to tell someone. It made Nick wonder for how long Brian had
been carrying this burden alone.
He saw that Brian hadn’t bothered to lock the door. Nick knocked
anyway. He didn’t get a response. When he pushed the door open, he saw Brian
sitting on the toilet, lid closed, staring ahead with an emotionless expression
on his face. He only raised his eyes slightly as Nick stepped in and kept
staring at him instead.
Nick had never been a star in expressing how he felt. Hadn’t been
good with words his whole life. Never knew how to say the right things on the
right time. But he was determined that he was gonna be the best friend Brian
could wish for. He would show Brian that he was worth the older man’s trust. So
he did the only thing he could think of then, just as he had done on the
basketball court the other day. In two long strides he was at Brian’s side and
embraced the broken singer into a tight hug.
Brian didn’t seem to react at all. He
just hung limply in Nicks arms.
“I’m so sorry Brian.”
Brian just stared at him when they broke free of the hug. There
was no emotion in his face, no life in his eyes. It scared Nick. It was as if
Brian had finally given up. No, Nick wouldn’t let that happen. We’ve come too far to give up now, Frick.
“Tell me, Frick, please tell me everything?”
“I’m not insane.” Brian’s voice was flat, devoid of any feelings
he may have.
“No, no you’re not.”
“I’m sorry I told you, I didn’t mean for it to happen. Just please
forget about it, alright?”
“I can’t Brian, I want you to tell me what’s been going on.”
“It’s a long, long story.”
“Then we’ll need to order pizza.” Nick smiled and he saw Brian
smile too, even if it was just a little bit. Disaster avoided.
He sat down next to his big brother, who hadn’t moved from the
toilet, and stared expectantly at him. As he saw Brian take a deep breath, he
got nervous with anticipation.
“I’ve seen them die. Every night for like two months long I’ve
seen them die, over and over again. It was always the same dream, I just
couldn’t remember the exact details whenever I woke up. I can remember them
now…”
“What did you dream about?”
“A truck. A big black truck that was going to ram a red Jeep. I
could see the truck hit us and then we’d tumble over into the forest. I could
see my dead wife sitting next to me, see my dying son in the back, screaming
for help, I just couldn’t reach him. Then I’d wake up and Leighanne would be
looking worriedly at me. I would say that nothing was wrong, that it would all
be okay, and she’d believe me, or she’d pretend to anyways.”
“So you’re not really making this up?”
“No Nick, why would I? I wouldn’t lie about the death of my
family! That’s ridiculous!”
“But, Brian, it still doesn’t explain why you were screaming Ava’s
name last night.”
Brian sighed. “They’re not the only ones I’ve seen dying.”
Nick gasped when he realised what that
meant. “You mean…”
“Ava’s in danger, I know it, and I have to stop it.”
“Maybe it was just a dream?”
Brian laughed humourlessly. “It’s never
just a dream Nick…”
Nick got dizzy when he thought back to all those times he’d seen
Brian wake up from a nightmare before. He realised he
had never really questioned Brian about them. It made him wonder…
“Bri?”
“Hmmm?”
“How long has this been going on exactly?”
Brian remained silent. It told Nick enough.
“Brian!”
“I’ve been having nightmares ever since I woke up in the hospital
when I was five…”
Nick’s jaw got unhinged and dropped to the ground. He scoffed
unbelieving.
“Dude…”
“You still don’t believe me, do you?”
“Well… I don’t know, I mean, I never had to deal with this
kind of stuff before, I don’t know what to think, what to expect.”
Brian nodded, looked down and spoke almost inaudibly: “Nick?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve seen Leslie die too.”
Nick jumped up as if he had been
burned. No! This was going way too far.
“No!”
“You wanted me to prove I
have these dreams?”
“No, that’s alright…” But Brian seemed on a roll.
“I’ve seen how she took an overdose of sleeping pills labelled Xylometanol in
that beach house. She stole those pills, surprisingly, from you, didn’t
she?”
Nick closed his eyes, he didn’t want to think back to that.
“Well…”
“That’s the reason you’ve been feeling guilty all along, isn’t it?
You feel guilty because it were your pills she took that afternoon!”
How could he possibly know about that?! Nick hadn’t told anyone.
His world had collapsed almost a year ago when he found that his sleeping
pills, that he hadn’t really been using anymore, had gone missing from his
medicine cabinet. His world had been destroyed when he found out who took
them…
“Stop…”
Brian fell silent. Nick was looking at him with a terrified look
in his eyes. This couldn’t be true!
“Oh my God…”
“Believe me, God doesn’t have anything to do with this…”
“How…? How can you…? Why do you know about this…?” choked Nick.
“I know, Nick, I know because I saw it. I saw your little sister
die on the day that it happened. I saw her die Nick, I’ve seen hundreds of
people die!”
Nick didn’t know what to answer. He had never imagined something
like this hiding in his brother’s head. How can he live with
this?
“Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you say something? You should
have told me Brian!”
“Oh come on! You were feeling guilty enough as it was! You didn’t
need me to add to that guilt, did you? I figured it was already too late to
inform you about the dream, and besides, dude, you wouldn’t have believed me.”
“I guess not.”
“Yeah, telling people that you get your dreams to come true
doesn’t really make them like you… good to know…”
“I still like you.”
Brian made a noncommittal grunt. “Dude…”
“So you see people die, huh? Man, couldn’t you have chosen another
power? Something a bit more… cooler? A lot less… disturbing?”
“Shut up, Nick.” But he could see that Brian’s demeanour
had changed. He seemed a lot more relaxed. Like a huge weight had been
lifted from off his shoulders.
“So where does Ava fit in this picture?”
“I have to save her.” Brian said matter of factly.
“How?”
“I don’t know. We have to be careful, check for signs of fire.
Include AJ if we need to.”
“Woah, woah,
hold on a second there. First you’re telling me that you’re the freaking Ghost Whisperer. And now we need to save Ava
from something that hasn’t happened yet?”
“Okay, first of all, I can assure you that I’ve never seen a ghost
in my entire life, and secondly, I just suggested that we’d be careful. I don’t
really need you to do this with me, but it
would be damn helpful.”
“Okay, so what’s gonna happen?”
Nick could only stare and listen with his mouth wide-open as Brian
told him the details of the terrifying dream he’d had. He got the feeling that
Brian didn’t tell him everything, but it was all he needed to know. When Brian
was finished, he stared at Nick expectantly, daring him to call him insane once
again.
“So you think this is really gonna happen?”
“I’ve had enough experience to know it’s gonna happen.”
“Hmmm. But you said you’ve never been able to stop it. What makes
you so sure it’s gonna work this time?”
Brian sighed and got a determined look in his eyes. “It has to
work this time, because I’m sick of all the goddamn nightmares.”
“You think they’ll stop if you save her?”
“It’s a theory…”
“You sound so sure about this.”
“Look, it has to
work, okay? Besides, I have one thing that I didn’t have before, now.”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?”
“I have you…”
Brian was looking at him hopefully. Suddenly Nick realized their
friendship had been taken to a whole new level tonight. Brian seemed to trust
him like he had never trusted anyone before, which made Nick feel special. The
broken singer had laid out his entire being before Nick, there were no more
boundaries, no more secrets. A sign of complete trust. But he needed to trust
Brian as well, and deep down, he knew he did.
“So we just need to convince AJ?” Nick asked, to let his friend
know that he was still paying attention.
“Ha! Easier said than done, Frack! I don’t know whether you
noticed, but AJ and I aren’t exactly on ‘speaking terms’ with each other at the
moment.” Brian replied grimly.
“No problem, let me deal with that stubborn caveman.”
“Thank you…” The two words said more than anything and Nick looked
into eyes of gratitude, of relief. The weight on Brian’s shoulders had been cut
in half, and now they carried it together. Like blood brothers…
blood brothers that share a dark secret…
“No problem, mister Medium.”
“Would you stop calling me these nicknames? It’s making me very
self-conscious.”
“Sure, future-guy.” He saw Brian rolling his eyes and smiling.
“Nick?”
“Yup?”
“Can you stay here tonight? I don’t wanna be alone…”
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks.” He watched motionless as Brian limped out of the
bathroom. He didn’t know exactly what he had signed onto, but he wasn’t gonna
back down. He wouldn’t let his friend down now. When he thought about the task
that was at hand, he got scared. It got more ridiculous the longer he thought
about it. But somehow, he had to believe it. He needed to help Brian
and he wasn’t gonna let Brian be sorry that he had told Nick in the first place…
***
